Grown Alchemist CEO Anna Teal is exiting the business to launch her own self-funded wellness brand.
Teal is departing the luxury body care brand after three years at the helm to create modern wellness company, AFIMA, which she is “building from the ground up”.
During her time at Grown Alchemist. Teal helped boost the brand’s awareness, while also leading the business through a new ownership carve-out and transition.
Plus, she spearheaded the opening of Grown Alchemist’s first UK flagship.
“Grown Alchemist is in a much stronger and clearer place today, with a great product pipeline, incredible partnerships coming and expanding distribution,” Teal told Cosmetics Business.
“With the ownership transfer process largely complete, it felt like a natural moment to move on.
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“It is not easy to leave a brand and a team you genuinely love, but it also felt like the right time to focus on AFIMA, and on what I want this next chapter to look like.
“At a certain point, if the conviction is strong enough, you have to back yourself.”
AFIMA will build on Teal’s 25 years experience in the beauty industry.
Her previous roles include Global CEO of spa brand Aromatherapy Associates, and VP and Global Business Development Director, Global Brands, at No7 Beauty Company.
While the finer details of AFIMA are under wraps for now, the USP of the brand is an idea born from spying a “very real white space emerging” in the industry.
Anna Teal is departing Grown Alchemist to launch wellness brand AFIMA
The ambition is to launch AFIMA later this year.
“I have been hugely impressed by the growth in the [wellness] category, but also frustrated by how unportable some of the solutions still are,” said Teal.
“Too many still do not move easily with you or fit naturally into modern life, [and] that is what started it.
“AFIMA is about bringing together everything I have learned over the past 25 years.
“How to build brands that connect, how to make them commercially credible, and how to create something people genuinely want to come back to.
“AFIMA is being built around performance, ease and a much more modern consumer experience.
“The bar I have set is very high, both in terms of how the product performs and how it fits into real life.”
Alongside creating new wellness brand AFIMA, Teal is also launching her own Substack, Beautiful Hustle, which will cover topics spanning beauty, wellness and business.
She will also be sharing the “honest reality” of building AFIMA on the platform.
“I am sharing parts of the journey in real time through my new Substack because I think there is value in showing what this stage actually looks like, not just the polished version people usually see later on,” added Teal.
