Jill Scalamandre Joins Beekman 1802 as CEO
Beekman 1802, the skin care brand acquired by Eurazeo late last year, has named a new chief executive officer.
Jill Scalamandre, the CEW chairwoman who most recently helmed Buxom and BareMinerals, is joining the company as CEO.
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Scalamandre, who counts companies of varied size — from Fekkai and Prada to Coty Inc. and Shiseido — sees the most opportunity for the brand in international expansion and brand awareness.
“We just started with Ulta, and there is so much more opportunity in America, and with the global footprint,” Scalamandre said. “The footprint of the brand can grow, the penetration of skin care can grow because it is a skin and body brand. The brand has a great structure and DNA, and it’s really about scaling.”
Currently, the brand has a robust business with QVC and HSN. At the 2021 WWD Beauty CEO Summit, cofounders Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell said Beekman 1802 had reached a sales volume of $100 million at retail across partners.
Scalamandre’s imperative is to find the sweet spot between digital and brick-and-mortar retail, the latter of which will bolster the brand’s awareness — and also poses more challenges.
“The space with the retailers is the biggest crunch,” she said. “The retailers love the brand, but there’s a lot less physical space right now because there are so many new brands and exclusive brands coming into the market.”
Part of garnering that space, though, will come with extending Beekman 1802’s track record of consumer trust.
“The response from the consumer on Beekman is incredible, they see the kindness is incredible, but also the goat milk and efficacy story. It’s just really about opportunities to grow awareness,” Scalamandre said. “It’s what I call a sticky story, meaning consumers love the brand and are very loyal. We just have to acquire new customers and grow brand awareness.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity in physical retail. That’s not true for every brand, but for Beekman, there’s opportunity in physical and then continued growth in digital around the globe,” she continued.
Instrumental to the brand’s marketing are buzzy collaborations, with a capsule collection of products with the comedy series Schitt’s Creek. Earlier this month, it announced another collaboration with Bridgerton. “It’s the number-one show on Netflix in terms of the most viewers. That will certainly help us in growing awareness with the younger consumer,” she said.
The brand’s innovation pipeline is full of new products across skin care and body. Marketing them — and the business’s core products — will start with communicating the benefits behind the brand’s hero ingredient, goat milk. “Consumers are looking for more claims and efficacy in the body area as well. There’s great science behind the products,” Scalamandre said. “I think we just have to talk to them a little bit more strongly and make consumers aware of them.”
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