Antony Buck of REN talks retail strategy

When it first launched almost 14 years ago, British skin care brandRENquickly garnered a cult following from beauty afficianados all around the world. The brand, which was built on a promise of delivering effective, performance-driven skin care without synthetic ingredients, now sits alongside the industry’s biggest beauty players in department stores, pharmacies and spas in over 50 countries. Co-founder and CEOAntony Buckshares the REN story.

Along with [REN co-founder] Robert Calcraft, I used to run a brand consultancy firm, advising multinationals on how to develop their brands. After around eight years, we were ready for something new and decided to develop a brand of our own.

We were very clear about the brand we wanted to start – it would be honest, accessible and something we could be proud of. Incidentally, at the same time my wife fell pregnant with our first child. She started experiencing problems with her skin and increasingly began experimenting with skin care to treat it. She found that the effective products left her with skin reactions, but the products which were pure and natural didn’t work. The idea then came about that we wanted to create a brand that was lovely to use, yet also effective and free from nasties.