22 May 2023 , 09:22
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A British business which has gone from selling two items a day to one sold every 30 seconds worldwide has come a long way in the last 10 years. Watermans UK had its humble beginnings on a kitchen table in Rotherham and has grown to become a global powerhouse in the last decade, offering hair growth products for customers across the world.
Gail, a 50-year-old former hairdresser and salon owner who has a background in the hair industry of over 32 years and 47-year-old Matt, a marketing expert, knew that a high salon standard needed to be achieved when founding Watermans UK. The couple had experienced their own hair loss problems in the past, and wanted to create a product derived from natural ingredients which could help promote hair growth.
It wasn't long before they founded the iconic Watermans Grow Me Shampoo and Conditioner set, which is now their best-selling product. The company has recently expanded into the High Street after signing a deal with UK retailer Boots, and now has distribution centres in over 17 countries overseas.
Today, the award-winning haircare brand also stocks a range of other hair products which are popular among its savvy shoppers, including hair elixir, lash growth serum, heat protection spray, hair masks, and purple shampoo. The business is conscious about the environment too, and recently upgraded all of its packaging to become fully recyclable, with some of its products even being available in fully bio-degradable bottles made from sugarcane.
But one of Watermans UK's proudest achievements to date is winning the coveted Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category, due to one bottle of its Grow Me Shampoo being sold every half a minute across the globe. The business believes it is the only haircare company in the country to have received the accolade, and its founders Gail and Matt Waterman accepted the honour from King Charles III at Buckingham Palace last year.
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While the UK celebrated the King's Coronation this month and Watermans UK marks almost 11 years in business, the Mirror interviewed Matt and Gail as they looked back at the company's success and discuss plans for the future. Here's what they had to say.
Watermans UK is offering Mirror readers an automatic £5 off on all of its products online, which will be applied at checkout. To find out more and view the full range of products, visit the website.
An award-winning brand
The Watermans Grow Me Shampoo and Conditioner bundle is currently on sale online (Watermans Hair)Watermans UK was brought to life after Gail and Matt began researching ancient haircare rituals. They combined ingredients such as biotin, niacinamide, lupin protein, and allantoin which can promote hair thickness and growth, to create a vegan-friendly and cruelty-free formula - without palm oil and sulphates - which they first began testing on themselves and Gail's hairdressing clients.
The product initially came in the form of a cream and was a hit with the salon's customers who had various hair types, lengths and textures. Shortly afterwards, the couple began completing orders online through post office deliveries, before outgrowing their home office to a 20,000 sq ft national warehouse in Rotherham.
Watermans UK now has distribution centres across Europe, the Asia Pacific region, UAE, Australia and India. It wasn't too long before the business was recognised with a Queen's Award for its efforts in international trade in 2022 (the last of its kind during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II), within the same year it celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Reflecting on the day and the brand's success, Gail said: “To be up there and honoured with other exceptional businesses and be recognised for all our hard work over the last few years has been really overwhelming. It was just so nice to be invited to Buckingham Palace and meet the King, or the Prince of Wales as he was formerly known as then.
"The day I went down to the palace one of the footmen had put us in the path to actually speak to the King and meet a couple of the princesses as well. I remember King Charles asked me if our shampoo actually worked and I said of course!"
Supporting local causes
Ahead of the UK Coronation this May, many charities thanked the Royal family for their support. In the past, King Charles has also spoken many times about the importance of helping local causes, and Watermans UK strives to do exactly that.
The company is proud to give back to the local community. Since its early beginnings, the brand has provided 650 kits to the 26 teams inside Dearne and District Football Club and supported many more teams in Yorkshire.
Watermans UK provides football kits to Dearne and District FC (Watermans UK)Watemans UK is a business which believes in spreading goodwill, it has also donated over £65,000 worth of products to hundreds of hospitals across the country. Its Grow Me Shampoo has been used by cancer patients as part of their hair care routine as they start to grow their hair back after chemotherapy treatment.
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Gail and Matt have been donating the products both in person and by post, and are proud to play a small role in comforting those who are going through a tough time. One of the chemo wards the business has recently donated to includes the brave women at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust - the chemotherapy units even receive a free re-stock every month.
Watermans UK is also a brand which is driven towards embracing gender equality and women's empowerment. Although the brand's products are heavily targeted towards females, Watermans UK is proud to report that in recent years it has seen an increase in sales from male customers, in particular becoming popular with those receiving hair transplants.
Roughly 99 per cent of the business is run by women and since co-owner Gail is mixed-race, 50 per cent of the company is owned by a woman of colour. Gail and Matt also pride themselves on being active directors and are hands-on with all aspects of the business, including warehouse distribution, packaging, PPC marketing, and customer services.
When asked about what the future holds for Watermans UK, Gail commented: "As a business we expand year on year to different countries and we're always seeking new distributors to partner with abroad. We're also looking forward to releasing new products and doing more for our communities in the months to come."
Watermans UK is offering Mirror readers an automatic £5 off on all of its products online, which will be applied at checkout. To find out more and view the full range of products, visit the website.