Erin Graybill was a student on a mission when she set up Luxe England Ltd six years ago - her main aim being to earn some extra money.
Within a year she’d more than achieved that goal, totting up first year turnover of £102,000 with first brand Nire Beauty, exporting all over the world and garnering rave reviews from bloggers. Yet even her closest friends had no idea about her successful side hustle.
From a standing start, the Newcastle firm now tops £1.55m in turnover with predicted sales of £1.8m for this year. More than 60% of that comes from exports, leading the firm to be rewarded with a Queen’s Award for International Trade.
It’s a far cry from the early days in her studio apartment in Newcastle, spending days working on her PhD and evenings working on the make-up brush company, exploring product development and supply chains.
West Californian-born Erin says: “It was a surreal moment. First our products were winning awards and now the company has won a royal award - this is amazing and I’m so proud. But I do see my strength as a leader as understanding the power of the team. Seeing how they’ve grown is so rewarding - I feel like we all won it.”
The idea for the firm came after Erin first moved from the US to Tyneside 11 years ago, to study for a masters degree in international economics and finance at Newcastle University.
After taking her masters she worked for the university for a few years before gaining a PhD scholarship to study international trade economics.
As a student she needed to bring in extra cash, so planned a company that could combine her growing knowledge in global export markets, while also filling a gap in the beauty market.
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At the time she was struggling to find make-up products which could cater to her sensitive skin, so she researched cruelty-free make-up brushes and accessories.
She said: “With my interest in international markets I started to think ‘I wonder if there’s something I can import?’ So from my bedroom as a student I thought about products I could develop, things I would want. What was lacking in the market? I settled on supersoft make-up brushes that don’t use animal hair, developed the product and looked to have it manufactured abroad and then sold online to customers all over the 海角视频.
“The first 200 units I ever sold were as good as I could make them but I didn’t know if they were good enough. I kept 10 aside and went to the best make-up technicians that I knew, gave them the make-up brush set which was beautifully presented, and asked them what they didn’t like about it, so we could make improvements.”
Since then the business has grown into a hugely successful enterprise thanks to the power of online selling.
More than 1.75m brushes, developed and made in India and China, have now been sold worldwide since Niré Beauty first took to Amazon, and it has received 7,000 five-star reviews across all markets.
The company is seeing double digit revenue growth in each of the last five years – even last year amid the challenges of lockdown - and growth is forecast to continue into 2021 through a number of product launches.
Luxe England Ltd employs nine staff split between its head office in Newcastle city centre, Leeds, Australia and China, who speak six languages between them. Having broken the 海角视频 and European market, the firm is also destined for success in the US.
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Amazingly it was two years before Erin revealed the scale of her business to fellow students and friends.
“I always say we’re a decent sized, small company in Newcastle that nobody has heard of because everything is online,” she said.
“My friends didn’t even know I was doing this on the side, they had no idea - I was selling thousands and thousands of products. To them I was just doing my PhD, playing volleyball - but my nights and my weekends would be spent working on my global supply chain, learning how to import, about VAT and duty. As much as my PhD was about international economics, I was actually learning tangibly, hands-on, about global trade by actually doing it.
“In 2017 I was late for a book club night and they asked why, so I said ‘I had a photo shoot for my products’... ‘For your what? You have a brand?’
“They thought I was just doing the PhD, so it was only 2017 that people started knowing that this wasn’t just a weird hobby.
“One of my PhD friends walked up to my desk at university on one occasion and I said ‘I’m having problems with my supply chain, there’s a strike in Hong Kong and my goods are held up’. He said ‘What? Seriously, how much are you selling?’ and I told him ‘I think I turned over £250,000 last year’. I didn’t pay myself either and kept a lot of money in the business.”
Erin, who has dual citizenship, tapped into assistance at Newcastle University’s entrepreneurial support programme, then called Rise Up but now known as Start Up, to help her organise an accountant, trademark, IP lawyer and other resources to grow the business. Until that point she had been flying solo, using Google for information when she needed it.
Later, she also became part of the NatWest Entrepreneurial Spark accelerator programme which gave her office space at the bank’s Quayside offices, and also started working with the Department of International Trade in 2017, giving her access to more support, as well as overseas markets.
She says the support she has had has been second to none .
“It’s amazing what support is available for businesses in the North East and I don’t think people utilise it enough,” she said.
“For me as an American, I come from a place where you don’t have grants for business, so I’ll basically take every opportunity to work with grants, internships, DiT – it really helped to bootstrap the business.
“I really feel like Newcastle is such a good place to start a business. We have Northumbria, Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham universities which all have a plethora of highly-qualified graduates and a lot of them are looking for opportunities to stay in the North East. The cost of living is really good value compared to other places in the 海角视频. So if you want to build a team of people Newcastle is excellent. My long term vision is to keep the business here.”
Earlier this year, having secured leave to pause her PhD to focus on the business, Erin made the decision to halt her studies.
“I passed all my annual progress reviews but I made the difficult decision to leave. I can’t do both,” she said.
“It pains me still but the reason I wanted a PhD in international economics is I’m fascinated by the global flow of trade and how different countries interact and make decisions based on trade policy. Really, that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
While a tough decision to make, it has freed her up to focus on the US market. Brexit supply issues, coupled with the pandemic, has slowed the European markets.
At the start of the pandemic the firm had just signed a lease for office space in The Corner building, on the corner of Grey Street and Mosely Street in Newcastle city centre, but the firm’s nine employees switched to a 100% virtual model when Covid-19 restrictions came into play.
All working from home, and pausing European launches, Erin and the team grew and developed Luxe England’s product range to provide Pamper Hampers and gift boxes, designed to lift spirits and calm stresses whilst also bringing her supply chain back to the 海角视频 to support small British businesses and charities.
All the contents of Luxe England hampers are 海角视频-sourced from small businesses, and it works with local universities to provide industry experience to students.
The pick, pack and deliver services are provided by Paperworks, a social enterprise in Leeds which provides support for individuals with learning difficulties and complex needs.
Erin says: “As much as we run a global supply chain and we try to reduce our impact as much as we can, it was really good to bring the supply chain back to the 海角视频. And I think our customers like it too - there’s more eco-consciousness and there’s a lot of small businesses that don’t have the traction that companies like mine have.”
Having weathered the storm of the pandemic by focusing on the 海角视频, Erin is now moving her gaze homeward, to the lucrative American market. The pandemic proving that she can work anywhere while the rest of her senior team are predominantly in Newcastle, she is also planning to move home.
She said: “I’m from the West Coast and I miss my family. It’s not like I have an official move date but everyone knows that at some point I’m going to want to go back.
“And in June I realised it’s time to go back. It’s harder to export to Europe so I said let’s do America.
“We’re doing no more launches in Europe until this whole Brexit thing is sorted - I’m horrified with the way that’s playing out – so we’re exporting to the US instead. Europe is almost non-existent for us at the moment.
“In America Luxe England isn’t about pamper hampers but birthday boxes, with everything branded with a Made in the 海角视频 theme - Americans love all things British and we’ve got beautiful launches coming up too.
“I’m lucky that the business is of a size that I can make that decision to change the strategy of my company. Not everyone can just pick up and start exporting to the US.”
Looking ahead, she said the market has huge potential.
She added: “The launch in the US went phenomenally and we ran out of stock literally immediately. We replaced all European sales with just one product in the US. As intimidated as I was by America it is far harder in the 海角视频 and Europe - it’s been a really nice transition. It’s nice to go home too.
“This year is going to be a really nice year, especially having taken some punches from Covid and then Brexit.”