The launch later this year of Becca Cosmetics’ first store in London will mark a new phase for the Perth-based cosmetics company.
With an expanding product range and some new faces on its board, Becca is pushing into new markets and hatching plans for further capital raising and new product development.
Having completed a capital raising in January, Becca chief executive Steven Schapira said the company was examining its options for a further capital raising later this year to drive the next phase.
“We are considering a substantial capital raising later in the year that will be much more substantial than the previous ones,” he told WA Business News.
Mr Schapira said the next capital raising was likely to be completed offshore in the UK and US, with a portion of the capital raised in Australia.
While refusing to disclose the dollar values of the previous or planned capital raising, Mr Schapira said the funds would be used for research and development of new product lines and expanding the company’s international presence.
To complement its new focus, Becca has made some recent additions to its board to assist in marketing efforts in the Europe and the Middle East.
Mohammad Alshaya, of Alshaya Group, the Middle East-based retailing and distribution giant, and German-based Wolfram Langer, who has extensive experience in the European cosmetics industry, were appointed to the board in the past 12 months.
Mr Schapira said Becca already had more than 225 products (112 of which are new products since November 2003) and would launch a range of baby products within the next six months.
He said Becca was also in discussions with a large international US-based partner regarding a new range of body products.
Mr Schapira, who has a background in the wine industry, established the company with professional make-up artist Rebecca Morrice Williams.
They teamed up in 1996 and, following five years of research and development, established Cosmetics Development Ltd in March 2001 to commercialise the product.
By October 2001 they had secured a deal with trendy London store Space.NK to stock the product.
Upmarket US department stores Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom followed, and the company is now selling through 70 stores in 15 countries.
Becca’s most recent foray is into the Middle East, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.
“With the Alshaya Group as our distributor in the Middle East, it is a major coup because they are a huge distributor,” Mr Schapira said.
The company has 20 employees directly but “many more in a defacto sense” through its department store presence, he said.
Despite the ongoing success of the company, Mr Schapira said there was a firm commitment by the board to retain the company’s headquarters in Perth.
