The UK founders of online cosmeceutical skincare retailer Effortless Skin have relinquished their 25% stake in Skincity.
Skincity acquired 75% of Effortless Skin from founders Stephen and Helen Elldred in August 2018 and rebranded to Skincity UK, launching in February 2019. It sells 80 skincare lines including brands such as NeoStrata, SkinMedica, SkinCeuticals and iS Clinical.
The departure of the founders marks the final step in the expansion, with Skincity now owning 100% of the UK operation. According to Skincity, sales in the UK continue to grow at record speed with 2019 sales topping £4 million.
Stephen Elldred commented, “The journey of the UK business, from its origins as Effortless Skin to its continued rapid growth as Skincity UK, has been an incredibly exciting one. Helen and I leave the company in the strongest position it has ever been in, and we are both very excited to see how it grows in the future. From a personal perspective, after 10 years in the company we are looking forward to new challenges and spending time with the family.”
Skincity’s CEO Stefan Fragner stated, “Since we became the main owner of Effortless Skin, the growth rate for the UK-based business has increased significantly, much we believe thanks to the Skincity concept; this combination of e-commerce and professional skincare services is quite unique in the English market. The integration of the company into the organisation has worked extremely well and we see the UK as one of our largest markets in the coming years – in April 2020 sales increased by more than 100% compared to the same period last year.”
