Beauty Brand Founders Leave Affected Florida Areas To Spare Businesses From Irma’s Wrath

After touching down in the Florida Keys on Sunday, Hurricane Irma took its last major swipe at the state on Monday, leaving behind flooding, blackouts, lost retail sales, damaged structures and vehicles, and at least four people dead.

Many beauty brand founders and executives based in the areas affected by the massive hurricane, which traveled from Florida to Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama as a tropical depression, won’t get firsthand looks at Irma’s impact until later this week upon returning home. They evacuated for personal safety and to keep their brands running as Irma pummeled Florida.

Milain David, founder of the direct-to-consumer skincare brand Eben Naturals, decamped Miami for Los Angeles last Tuesday, and sent a couple of hundred products to meet him there for fulfillment purposes. “If I was in Miami, I would be trapped in my house with very limited movement. In Los Angeles, I have access to the internet, and I have products,” he says. “We solved our operational problems. That’s the beauty of having a fully digital business.”

Eben Naturals

Carolyn Aronson, who rode out Irma in Atlantic City, N.J., where her brand It’s a 10 Haircare sponsored the Miss America pageant, did her best to hurricane-proof her Coral Springs-headquarted company after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. She put its information on the cloud, spread products to multiple locations and, over the weekend, rerouted calls and emails to herself to ensure customers weren’t left hanging. It’s a 10 Haircare closed on Monday, but Aronson doesn’t think the brand will take much of a business hit.

“The bottom line is, if mother nature is going to come in and be destructive, there is only so much you can do,” says Aronson. “The smartest thing as a business owner is to make sure you never have all your eggs in one basket, and diversify your warehouses and have the ability to ship from areas not in the path of the storm. That’s what I’ve done.”

Irma caused delays to natural skin, hair and body product brand Kreyol Essence’s deliveries to Whole Foods, although the Miami firm scrambled to dispatch a partial shipment. For e-commerce shoppers, Kreyol Essence announced on its website that its offices weren’t open Monday and deliveries could be postponed.

“The smartest thing as a business owner is to make sure you never have all your eggs in one basket, and diversify your warehouses and have the ability to ship from areas not in the path of the storm. That’s what I’ve done,” says  Aronson of It’s a 10 Haircare.

“We pride ourselves on providing white glove service to our community, so my business partner felt particularly strong about being transparent with customers so that they don’t think we are forgetting our oath to provide an amazing experience with Kreyol Essence,” says Yve-Car Momperousse, founder and CEO of Kreyol Essence. She journeyed to Orlando to steer clear of Irma and expects to resume Kreyol Essence’s operations on Wednesday.

Irma caused about 25 Whole Foods in Florida to shutter; 127 Target stores closed; and dozens more Walmart, Publix, Best Buy, CVS, Home Depot, Aldi, Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s and Walgreens units were interrupted. Planalytics estimates the hurricane will zap nearly $2.8 billion in retail revenues.

The fallout could have been a lot worse. Florida didn’t suffer the same devastation as several Caribbean islands, where 36 people were killed and buildings were ruined. Beauty brand founders from Florida signaled evacuations helped minimize harm.

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“The good thing about this hurricane is that people took it seriously, and one thing we can be proud of as Floridians is the coordination ahead of Irma was very good,” says David. “Local and state government officials did a great job at warning people. They issued evacuation orders way ahead of time.”

Still, brands will draw several lessons from Irma to improve hurricane readiness. As a result of Irma, Eben Naturals may set up a second fulfillment facility outside of Miami. David explains, “In the event of a complete paralysis of Florida and Miami, if we have our items safely stored somewhere else, that would be a huge plus.”