Buyout deal fast tracks Suzie Beauty owner’s big dream

Cosmetics maker Suzie Wokabi recently made one of the toughest decisions of her life — selling her seven-year-old business to listed consumer goods manufacturer Flame Tree Group.

The 38-year-old lives and breathes Suzie Beauty, her firm which offers a range of facial cosmetics, including foundation, concealer, eye-shadow and liner, mascara, lip-gloss, blush, lipstick, powder and a full line of applicator brushes.

This is illustrated in the fact that she cannot operate normally without a tub of her concealer brand within grabbing distance — she has one container in her handbag, another in the living room and back-up in the bedroom.

Despite her deep passion for the business, fostered by the painstaking effort to grow it, she could not get herself to fall in love with the planning and book-keeping demands in the back office.

“I did not like doing what I call the “yucky” finance and operations stuff,” Ms Wokabi told the Business Daily, adding that she only started the company to produce make-up and did not pay enough thought on how to run a company.

“It was a very uncomfortable end of the business for me. I enjoyed being a creative and selling the product. My husband had to step in to take care of the operations and finance,” she explains.

This “yucky” stuff inhibited the creative flair of entrepreneur who was trained at MAC Cosmetics in New York and holds a certificate in media make-up from Award Studio in Los Angeles.

When the suitors came knocking, offering her the position of chief creative officer in the business in exchange for full ownership of her company, Ms Wokabi could not resist their offer.

But it was as clear cut as saying “yes” and signing against the dotted line.

Giving up a company that she had grown to post Sh15 million in 2013, and which was evidently headed for greater heights, would require a sober interrogation of all the pros and cons of handing over control.

According to Flame Tree Group, the colour cosmetics market is worth approximately Sh5.4 billion and is expected to grow to Sh6.6 billion by in the next two years.

Ms Wokabi remembers first meeting Heril Bangera, Flame Tree chief executive, in May last year through a mutual friend who was also her business adviser.

The two hit it off almost instantly given that she deduced that he had a similar vision to her in terms of Suzie Beauty’s future and that the two firms were founded on similar principles.

Mr Bangera started Flame Tree in 1989 while aged 18 under the name Roto Moulders Ltd while still a university student, depending on his father to run it until he graduated.

“I looked at what it would mean for Suzie Beauty. I was very particular about longevity of the brand. He was willing to take me and all essential personnel on board,” she told Enterprise.

To Ms Wokabi, the takeover offered her company a chance to grow its brands by broadening their reach.

Flame Tree Group offered her royalties — she declined to divulge the rate — promised to absorb her key employees and to top that off, she was also offered the creative job.

Under this new role, Ms Wokabi will be tasked with the product design and development as well as assume the position of the brand ambassador at Flame Tree’s latest subsidiary.

“We needed a partner with the right resources and the right networks to grow the company,” she explained, adding that the company had been searching for a partner for at least a year.

“I also finally have my dream job. It is the position I have wanted since we started Suzie Beauty.”

She assented to the takeover which is now awaiting final approval from the Competition Authority of Kenya.

Suzie Beauty will be the third acquisition by Flame Tree since it was listed in November 2014. The company acquired Miss Africa, Black Angel and Beautyplus hair brands from Beauty Plus Trading East Africa.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm also bought the Monalisa skincare brand.

Suzie Beauty’s journey dates back to 2007 when Ms Wokabi returned to Kenya from the US where she was working as a professional make-up artist for companies such as MAC and Clinique.

Back home, and keen on making a living out of cosmetics, she was soon by hit difficulties with the main one being that high quality product for coloured skin were inaccessible locally.

This shortage prompted her to create her own line. In 2009, she registered her company.

“The product was right, the market was ready, the retail outlets were a slight challenge and getting the right partnerships was also not that easy,” she remembers.

The company’s first year of existence was spent on research and development of the product line, the second year on product testing while the third year was spent on fundraising.

Ms Wokabi received Sh6 million from the two investment groups and Sh10 million from Chase Bank.

“By December of 2012, after just about seven months of retailing, we had sold about 12,000 units translating to about Sh12 million in sales,” said Ms Wokabi, adding that this amount grew by Sh3 million the next year.

Following the new partnership, Ms Wokabi expects to introduce a new skin care line which will include moisturisers, cleansers as well as other facial products.

Before the acquisition, she had managed to roll out only 11 of the original 32 products she had conceptualised under her new company, meaning there is still room for expansion.