Conglomerates disrupting brand-retailer relationships: the case of Tata Harper.
Are beauty acquisitions overlooking key values? Can a brand maintain its history and core message once it has lost its indie status? Where can we put loyalty in the beauty industry?
Those are questions open for discussion. An ongoing interrogation since the green beauty industry transitioned to a “mainstream” category, i.e, clean beauty. At this point, large retailers started incorporating “clean” section as it became lucrative. In parallel, more conglomerates and investors took interest in green brands, thus adding them to their portfolios. This has been impacting and altering brand-retailer relationships, but before we dive into the case of Tata Harper, here’s an excerpt from a piece I wrote in 2018 on the state of niche beauty stores (full post here).
Subsequently, after witnessing the growing demand for organic beauty, conventional beauty stores (both in online and brick-and-mortar form) started adding a “natural” section or at least stock up on green superstar brands. While this is excellent news for organic/green beauty entrepreneurs and formulators (and I’m rooting for all of them) – it also raised a new issue, namely the difficulty for specialized organic shops to compete against the big retail monsters. How can a family-owned business stand up to a Sephora, a Space NK, a Neiman Marcus, a Cult Beauty, an Urban Outfitters, an Asos, an Anthropologie, a Free People, or a Feel Unique? Could this be a David vs Goliath situation though? Only time will tell. When I see in my newsletter a highly popular beauty UK web store announce stocking Tata Harper and proclaiming themselves as the pioneers in discovering this brand, I am appalled. Simply because Content Beauty (…) has been stocking TH years before you saw those green bottles in every skincare shelfie. That is just one example, I could give you a dozen more. What makes me the most uneasy is the dissolution of green beauty stores. Is it a direct consequence of the growing interest of conventional stores in green beauty? I do not have the answer, as things are not black and white, yet I can’t help but think that in certain cases, it has ramifications. This is bittersweet and the situation is quite complex. Organic/green formulators should be able to develop freely and get the success they deserve, which is already not an easy task since we have not shifted to an entire green cosmetics industry. While the “hippie” etiquette is slowly getting detached from organic cosmetics, the leverage that big corporations, such as l’Oreal, Unilever or Estee Lauder, possess is still unparalleled in the beauty industry, so every time a genuine eco brand is able to rise is a reason to celebrate. Yet, as I see the beauty industry give more significance to eco and indie beauty, I hope that it will only elevate the status of eco/organic stores and not bring them down. When I first started my green journey almost a decade ago, I could barely find any products, anywhere near I lived. It is only thanks to the pioneer eco stores that I’ve been able to fulfill my beauty needs. Year after year, more online specialized stores sprouted and today, I can shop for all my favorite green beauty brands in the comfort of my own home. (…) The competition is hard. Large retailers have the marketing teams, the budget, the popularity, the establishment and the network. How can a niche shop compete? Call me naive, but I then came to find something that organic/eco stores have rooted in them and that others lack of. A soul. Behind every eco online store, there’s a face and a story. A personal journey that turns into a collective human project. They started – not to jump on a trend – but to make a positive impact and pledge to offer products that are good for their customers and for the planet. (….) Of course, I want by no means bash any business here, that’s is not the point and I’m not saying that conventional stores should stop going after green brands. I simply hope we can come to find a balance, one that enables organic/green brands to grow and succeed but also allow specialized eco stores to flourish and grow in their own rights as well. You may say that such is business, with the survival of the fittest…but to me organic/green beauty struck me as revolving around defying the odds and living according to your own terms.
This was 7 years ago. Today, multiple independent stores have since closed down, some abruptly. Meanwhile, a growing amount of brands has been acquired by conglomerates. I’ll recenter towards the current situation with Tata Harper, because it’s such an emblematic brand and recent events surrounding the company bring up various interrogations. Posts and announcements appeared on social media over the past couple of weeks, and I received confirmation that multiple shops have been dropped by Tata Harper, including stores from the US, Germany, UK, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and more. The vast majority are indie stores.
Tata Harper skincare was founded in 2010, back then the interest towards natural skincare was timid, except in the green beauty community where we were smitten by the fact that it was produced in the founders’ 1,200 acre organic farm in Vermont, without the use of any synthetic ingredients (as stated by the brand). Nested in pristine green glass bottles, the brand became quickly beloved by indie beauty shops and their respective clientele, and over the years the distribution points expanded exponentially.
The evolution since the Amorepacific aquisition
The big change occurred in 2022: Korean beauty conglomerate Amorepacific acquired the brand Tata Harper for an undisclosed sum. TH was no longer indie, and in December 2024, it was announced that the founder, Tata Harper, was stepping down as CEO/brand president, leaving the spot to Shay Bennaim, who started at Coty and former general manager North America of the luxury fragrance brand Le Labo (owned by the Estée Lauder Group). Tata, is now focusing on her position of co-founder and brand ambassador. She is quoted to be “confident that Tata Harper Skincare will not only continue to lead the clean beauty industry but also consistently deliver innovative and luxurious products to our cherished community.”1
According to Amorepacific, her role now consists in “presenting products to customers and remain a trusted voice in product development.”2 Tata Harper was since the inception, invested in the marketing aspect of her brand, and literally the “face” of her products, subsequently, it will be interesting to see how things play out for her as a “brand ambassador” for a company she no longer holds any executive position in. For now, I am dubious on how the brand can act as a “leader” since the natural beauty paradigm has drastically changed and continues to do so. This also applies for the beauty vocabulary.
I previously touched upon the linguistic nonsense that was going to arise from the use of “clean”. Full post here). From a seasoned, 15-year-old company, it’s a rather curious choice of words.
The retail-brand collaboration can be compared to some extend to a relationship, not every retailer is meant for your brand: in the case of Tata Harper, the company was able to count on the support on indie shops early on, before finding itself at Sephora, Space NK, Neiman Marcus, Net-à-porter, and co. Back in January 2018, the company was still independent yet planning expansion and overseas growth: in a press interview for WWD, Tata Harper explains that the next step is to deepen the relationships with current partners and “bulk up global distribution.” She goes on: “We want to go deep with whatever distribution we have,” she said. “We do what makes sense — for Sephora, you can only go so deep because you don’t belong in a couple of the stores…people don’t necessarily buy $75 cleansers. Not every door makes sense for every partner — we try to identify what are the doors, and then we grow into them.” Internationally, the business has been growing with retailers like Le Bon Marché, Printemps, Space NK in the U.K. and independent boutiques. Tata Harper rarely uses distributors and instead has hired a team for Europe.3”
It’s quite startling, as the strategy by Tata was clearly to reinforce the ties with existing retail partners, including “independent boutiques” as stated. The priorities seem to have changed now since the brand is no longer independent, but part of huge beauty consortium. This raises multiple questions: are there current issues within the company? The fact that they did not resort to distributor at their scale is quite unusual and in certain cases, risky. Are there mismanagement issues? Some stores, prior to being dropped, have had no contact with Tata Harper’s account managers for months, despite multiple contact attempts. They were able to order, but no longer had a designated person of contact. When asking for responses, brand representatives responded that they are “scaling back distribution in an effort to better focus its limited resources and provide its partners with the support that they deserve.” Since its acquisition, the brand has been going through a strategy shift, they are no longer looking to “expand” but to refine their focus on specific markets. The distribution protfiolio of Tata Harper was indeed huge, and they are streamlining their resources and operations with reduced points of distribution, upon their own admission that the network grew beyond a point that was manageable to them. From the informations I could gather so far, Sephora US will continue to carry the brand, same for Le Bon Marché, Printemps, Oh My Cream (which operates in France/UK). Oh my Cream (OMC) does not count as independent/small business: two investment funds (Eutopia and Experienced Capital possess the majority of shares, Experienced Capital takes a 41% stake in it.4 Juliette Levy-Cohen, the founder, holds 25%. In 2023, OMC was a structure of 150 employees, with 30 brick-and-mortar stores in France and London. Space NK, Niche Beauty, and a couple of indie stores in France and the US also remain partners (so far). Tata Harper has “spared” some indie stores, however they did let go of some pretty big names in the green beauty scene and some of them supported Tata Harper since the early days. Since cutting out the smaller stores abruptly, some have already actively been looking for ways to compensate the loss because it’s indeed a blow. Tata Harper having gone mainstream, benefits from a wide representation and is a regular mention in press and media outlets. This contributes to generate important sales as there is a significant amount of customers looking for media validation before making purchases. For many indie stores, Tata Harper was amongst the best-selling brands, including for said reason: it comes with a lot of publicity and established marketing content.
“True luxury carries a set of values and an elegance that encompass all aspects of a brand.”
Some of the practices by mass retailers that put indie stores in difficulty
I care about the state of niche shops because independent entrepreneurship is pivotal. People’s livelihood is at stake and they are on the frontline against the domination of monopolies. When monopolies take over the masket, it’s not in the best interests of the consumer. A healthy economy leaves space for healthy competition and diversity. Sephora and other mass retailers have come for the brands stocked in indie stores. They are not meant to provide astute expertise. Their business model favors relentless accumulation of brands, which is overwhelming, overstimulating and prone to creating confusion. They may come up with apps and tech to “improve the shopping experience” but it is a world of difference compared to the service provided by human-scale, authentic niche stores.
Even more concerning: the clauses and demands by big chains, putting niche stores in difficulty:
They heavily capitalizes on “exclusivity”, which for ex. comes in the shape of limited edition/special releases only available at x or y. To stay in their brand pool, mass retailers also request from companies, new product releases on a regular basis.
Their heavy retention strategy : for ex. they demand that the brand debuts the newest launch at their chain, and freeze for a determined time its release at the brand’s other retail partners, thus preventing sales for niche retailers. This is for instance, the “First at Sephora” program: for an x amount of time, these products won’t sell anywhere else — not even on the brands’ owned channels. A strategy they openly admit.5
Sephora and Ulta both have employees that are specifically brand reps for certain brands, and their job consists in redirecting visitors/customers towards their products.6
Here are a couple of reasons why I prefer shopping at small/indie stores as those elements are non-existant in big chains :
the remarkable service and expertise - even more so when you start your journey into slow beauty. The shopping experience feels very special. It often comes with tailored advices and recommendations. The atmosphere is usually serene and zen, more intimate. With an appeased nervous system, you’re also bound to make better shopping decisions.
The curation. You’ll likely be introduced to little gems you’ve barely heard of. The amount of research done prior to stocking a brand to see if it meets organic/eco beauty standards is tremendous and every owner will attest to it. Also, every single product is either tested by the founder and/or some of their close team/family members. Conventional stores do not necessarily (exceptions apply) have curators or buyers with a solid background and insight on green beauty. In fact, if you browse large retailer’s “clean” section you’ll find blatant greenwashing in the mix.
Just like McDonalds is the symbol of fast-food, Sephora and co. are representative of fast-beauty. Pushing brands to keep creating new products, regardless if a product is worth launching or not is surreal. We’re reaching saturation. Their business model is also incompatible with creating proper amount of time allocated for each customer. It’s not the place where you’ll be able to find someone who can guide you every step of the way if necessary. It’s not meant to. It’s meant to push you to buy a lot, but not necessarily what works specifically for you.
The proximity. It is not uncommon for customers to get in touch directly with the founder(s). You often have a real person and not a chatbot in the customer service. Your opinion is thus valued and you’re more likely to be heard regarding an enquiry.
Of course, I am not idealizing niche shops. Some have their flaws and issues, they are not immune mistakes and wrongdoing. But I prefer multiple perfectible independent stores over a handful of impersonal mass retailers taking up the entire beauty space.
There’s no “one-size-fits all” and the bigger is not necessarily the better.
Just to give an idea, a big chain like Sephora has over 2,700 stores in 35+ countries. Partnering with a business of this scale does not always come at the best interest of a small brand. Axiology shared last year in an IG reel how they were kicked out by Ulta (see video here) and despite what would seem as a “setback”, today Axiology is stasnding proud and released one of their most innovative product, the fungdation (I bought it and it’s fungtastic ;-). As Axiology,’s founder Ericka reflects: “our mission is way stronger than one retailer.” Big retailer does not systematically equal success.
In March 2024, Ulta and Credo ended a partnership, “The Credo Collection” which featured a selection of clean beauty brands. FYI: Credo’s co-founder and CEO, Annie Jackson is a member of Ulta’s Conscious Beauty Advisory Council, group founded in 2020 to supervise the Conscious Beauty program. The latter is a reponse to Sephora’s Clean At Sephora program launched in 2018. In an article from Beauty Independent, Josh Rosebrook explains why he also ended up pulling his brand from Ulta (we’re talking about 100 locations, so it’s a pretty bold move): “We chose to pull out because all they wanted to do was discount, discount, discount. Then, as a small brand, they make you pay the discount, and that doesn’t work for us,” he explained. “Our product should be discounted once in a while on Black Friday or once a year for a retailer to do it, but not every month—and we stand by that. So, we pulled out of Ulta. It just wasn’t a good fit.”7
“I prefer multiple perfectible independent stores over a handful of impersonal mass retailers taking up the entire beauty space.”
My overall thoughts on Tata Harper’s redirection
In the near future, Tata Harper may continue to be comfortably positioned in beauty editor’s desks and/or shelves, but Amorepacific’s move is distancing it from a part of her community. The community that stood by Tata since the inception, the people that attended her masterclasses in their local niche store. The people who enjoyed Tata with her signature glow, making an appearance to those classes to share her best tips. The resurfacing mask was a breakthrough product when it was released, and I loved it to bits, yet multiple small brands have developed formulas that provide outstanding results too. Some brands even stay in their lane and release at a slower pace, phenomenal creations (see my recent post featuring some gems).
I want to insist on the fact that I am not judging anyone shopping at big retailers, nor do I judge brands that do business with them. To each their own, and every situation is different. To me, it’s just an opportunity to reassess my priorities and check if my consumption choices/practices align with my vision/ideal. I simply ask myself questions: to what extend can the industry claim to support women entrepreneurship, when the majority of indie stores have female founders and are put under immense pressure due to big chains? In what way, does “diversity” supposedly matter in the beauty industry, when conglomerates have never been more powerful? There are a lot of contradictions, paradoxes and mixed signals within the industry. Of course, nothing is black and white, nuance remains crucial.
Regarding Amorepacific’s decision to cut out some beloved indie retail partners, it’s obvious that loyalty is out of the equation. Granted, we’re talking about business. I don’t have my naive sunglasses on, but can’t we aspire for more wholesome behavior where true/authentic relationships are not disposable tissues that you throw away as soon as you “make it” or at the slightest “inconvenience”? There is beauty in loyalty and the energy that emanates from it is so high and vibrant. I personally think that Tata Harper could have benefitted from cherishing those special relationships with indie stores (as she did mention them back in 2018) because it was making her stand out. The ones that were there since the beginning and believed in her pioneering brand. Now, Tata Harper may just become another “clean” brand stored at Sephora, especially amongst the new(er) generations of consumers. By removing key partners that were tied to her history, a part of the soul and identity of Tata Harper is likely going into oblivion. While Tata Harper never marketed itself as “accessible” given the higher price point, Tata Harper did have a “homey” aura with the whole farm-to-skin approach, and the masterclasses in indie stores. Niche founders are also respectful and eager to highlight the vision and history of the brands they carry. They knew how to elevate and humanize Tata Harper in their shelves. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it with sentimentality lol, but I genuinely think that the familiarity with Tata Harper, which I so closely associated with indie stores, is drifting away now. If you claim to be a groundbreaking company, setting up higher standards, and at the forefront of a revolutionary movement, then shouldn’t this also apply to your distribution model too? Where is the revolution in reinforcing beauty chains and large retail points as opposed to high-qualified, independent businesses?
True luxury carries a set of values and an elegance that encompasses all aspects of a brand. From excellent customer service to reliable communication, healthy work environment and solid, transparent relationships with retail partners and/or anyone involved in the brand. The way Tata Harper’s original retail partners (who sold her products long before Sephora and co.) have been treated with an informal and nebulous message putting an abrupt end to their partnership sadly lacks grace, and is in total dissonance with the high standard the brand claims to promulgate. It’s unfortunate it has come down to this, but it’s a reminder that in the beauty industry, not all that glitters is gold.
To be continued.
What do you think? Do you think this mass disruption in Tata Harper’s distribution will negatively/positively impact the customer’s relationship with the brand?