When a recruiter contacted Sandy Saputo, then CMO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand incubator Kendo, in 2019 about the CEO position at “cleanical” skincare brand True Botanicals, she wasn’t looking to change jobs. Still, she met with True Botanicals founder Hillary Peterson to learn more. They ended up talking about the brand for hours over coffee.
“By the end of the conversation, I knew that’s where I wanted and needed to be,” says Saputo, who was CMO at Bare Escentuals and VP at Procter & Gamble prior to joining Kendo. “I’m in a role where both my personal and professional values align with the company’s, and I get to work with a founder and a team who are as passionate as I am about making a significant and positive difference in women’s lives for the long term.”
Now, nearly five years after installing Saputo as CEO, True Botanicals’ business has reached $70 million in retail sales and has an eye toward hitting $100 million in the next two to three years. It’s notched a customer retention rate of 48%, according to Saputo. Customer retention rates in the beauty industry are typically around 20% to 30%.
Looking ahead to the next five years, Saputo anticipates scaling True Botanicals, which secured series B funding from growth equity firm NextWorld Evergreen in 2023, in the United States and internationally. The brand is currently available at Credo Beauty, Cult Beauty, The Detox Market, Nordstrom, Goop, Erewhon, The Detox Market and select spas, fitness studios, hotels and boutiques across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
“I’m very excited about the potential growth path for the business both in terms of regions as well as channels and product categories,” says Saputo. “It’s limitless.”
Ahead, she fills us in about True Botanicals’ expansion at spas, the confusion around clean beauty and a product launch coming later this year.
When you were brought on five years ago, what were your initial goals?
It was a small business at the time purely e-commerce, so I was brought on to both build the company into an omnichannel beauty company and scale the business not only in the U.S., but beyond the U.S. and across multiple channels. Our founder had created an amazing proposition that was incredibly scalable and so relevant for the times and for many years to come.
What’s the retail distribution priority for True Botanicals today?
I’m an omnichannel brand builder. So, when I came on board, I aligned with Hillary that that would be something I would want to do, and she was absolutely in support of that. Last time I spoke to Beauty Independent in 2023, I mentioned in the article that we had just scratched the surface. We entered back into retail in 2021. Here we are four and a half years in, we’re in full distribution at Nordstrom, we are at Credo, and we’re at The Detox Market both in the U.S. and Canada.
The objective is not just to get into retail, but really win with the retail partners that we go into partnership with. We are today a top brand in all three channels and with all three retailers. In fact, we’re the No. 1 brand in one of them. We’re very proud of that. We’re doing it very strategically, slow and steady. Our commitment to them is to unlock incremental growth for both them and us. We have an incredible wholesale team and a very strong field team, and we really focus on a multifaceted approach.
What does winning in retail look like for True Botanicals?
We are very well-versed in e-commerce, putting all the best practices in place when it comes to digital marketing, PDPs [product detail pages] and influencer social marketing to drive traffic to those pages, but when we enter retail and want to prove our prowess in retail, it’s really activating a field team to drive momentum and conversion in stores, bringing an experience to the customer. We’re one of the teams that bring such fun events to the store experience.
W’re also participating in a lot of the things that the retailers offer. With Nordstrom, for example, it’s livestreams. We’ve had both our head of product innovation, Sarina Godin, with our dermatologist [Dr. Daniel Butler] as well as one of our celebrity partners and our founder on there. We do influencer events with our retailer partners, and we’re always looking to do interesting types of media, whether it’s TV spots that direct to that retailer in a specific region, digital activations, advertising, PR and social.
What makes a good retail partner for True Botanicals?
We are a luxury prestige brand, and so one of the things we look for in a partner is really bringing that proposition to life in a meaningful way for the consumer. While there are certain key times of the year where it makes perfect sense, we try not to be overly promotion all the time.
Is partnering with retailers like Credo and The Detox Market known for carrying “clean” brands a priority?
It’s a priority in the sense that the consumer that’s looking for that proposition is there. A hundred percent of their customer base is exactly the consumer that’s looking for us, and we definitely need to be there to serve them, and we need to be a top brand there, and we are.
How much has True Botanicals explored international distribution?
In my experience, you do international very carefully and when you are ready with resources and investment. We are with Cult Beauty in the U.K., and we’re exposing our brand to the customers in the U.K. and in Canada. Those are two markets that we’re very interested in, but I’d say we have to build the awareness. We have to introduce ourselves properly to the consumers there. Once we feel like we have a certain level of awareness, then we can go in and partner with a retailer.
How is the brand building that awareness?
We are working with a few PR partners as well as influencers in order to begin to introduce ourselves to that community. We’re also doing some dinners with key editors there.
True Botanicals is a clean beauty pioneer. How has it remained innovative when it seems like clean beauty is less of a priority for customers today?
I’m not sure if it’s less of a priority, I think there’s more confusion for the consumer. If we look at searches on Google, Amazon, there’s still huge amount of consumers seeking safe, healthy products. The topic of nontoxic products that are safe is still top of mind for consumers, especially post-COVID. But it’s just become incredibly cluttered and the word “clean” has become a dirty word, it’s become diluted. That’s probably why we feel that maybe it’s not so much of a priority.
With True, we pretty much have stayed incredibly, forgive the pun, true to our mission, proving that products that prioritize the health and safety of people in the planet can be the most effective. We’ve gained so much trust, and we continue to gain trust because we’ve been unwavering in our commitment to doing two things: One, always presenting independent certification and proof that our products are 100% toxin-free and meeting the most rigorous health and safety standards.
Two is really the innovative part, which is taking bold, forward-thinking positions in the field of green science. For us, science is about the science of wellbeing. We look for ingredients that are plant-based that deliver incredible efficacy in terms of performance because that’s what our consumer expects. The reason we’ve gained so much traction and trust over the years and we’ve been able to grow is because our innovations are really meaningful.
When we launched the Chebula Active Serum in 2021, it was trying to deliver anti-aging the likes of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Nightly Repair, Lancôme’s Genifique or the La Mers, not just viewed as, oh, this is a natural alternative. It was about finding an ingredient where she [Godin] was able to conduct clinical tests to look at the topical capabilities for the skin all the way down to the cellular level.
“The word ‘clean’ has become a dirty word, it’s become diluted.”
How has the consumer changed post-COVID?
The mindset of this broader impact that health and safety has on people and the world has become part of our subconscious. In addition to that, what COVID triggered is that self-care is now part of our vernacular. It’s accepted that we make that part of our routine. It’s a real positive shift towards holistic wellness. It’s good for us mentally, physically, spiritually.
I think last is how we shop. Omni is still the way people love to shop, but, pre-COVID, you discovered something in store and then you searched and learned about it online. Post-COVID, it’s flipped. People discover things online and then they want to go experience it in store.
What’s True Botanicals’ approach to social media?
For this year, we are prioritizing the creator economy. As I mentioned, post-COVID, that’s where people are discovering products, so we have found our way there. We are partners with CreatorIQ, and we’ve learned that 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations.
We want to approach partnerships as authentically as possible, whether it’s a celebrity ambassador, dermatologist, makeup artist, influencer. What I mean is it really is someone who believes in our proposition and our mission, and we believe would fall in love with our brand and products. As we look to partner with a lot of creators, the priority is ensuring that we have like-minded values and that we grow together both as brand and creator.
Are there specific expansions, product or otherwise coming up that you’re excited about?
We had some interest last year from spas to carry our brand, and we started doing that. It’s equity building, and partnerships in local communities that are super high-end fit our brand really well. That has taken off, so we are now focusing on it in a much more strategic way. We just launched at Auberge du Soleil in Napa and Cavallo Point in Sausalito. In most of the spa destinations, we have a True Radiance facial to experience the brand firsthand. We’re super excited about that channel and looking forward to building it more over the next few years.
A product innovation that comes out in March is, our Pure Radiance Oil and bronzing drops, the two have come together in one incredible drop that you put on your face. We called it Bronze Well because it really is wellness-infused bronzing drops. It’s not your usual bronzing drops that are loaded with shimmer to give you that glow. This is truly a radiance that comes from within. It gives you more of a self-tanned look, but loaded and packed with carotenoids and seed oils that are nutritious for the skin. I think it’s going to be a breakthrough.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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