Amika is heading into the new year with a new chief executive officer.
Chelsea Riggs, the brand’s president, has been promoted to the top slot and will be leading the business globally.
Riggs will continue to build on the brand’s winning vision, which has taken Amika to new heights in 2023. That follows its acquisition by Bansk Group last year.
“Things aren’t built overnight; we’ve been working on the same strategy for a few years now: our hero product strategy with narrow and deep distribution with our key partner, Sephora, and our professional network, which is extremely important to our current and future business,” Riggs said. “We’ve been in a position where we’re able to leverage everything that’s working about the brand.”
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For context, Amika and sister brand Eva NYC were expected to reach a combined $150 million in sales for 2022. Post-acquisition, Amika has nearly doubled its sales volume, said Reuben Carranza, chief executive of the brand portfolio, which also includes Ethique.
“We are navigating something that rarely happens — it’s a doubling of the business post-acquisition,” Carranza said. “Amika has grown 80 percent on revenue alone since the acquisition, and this year alone, we’re up 93 percent, and we’ve grown profitability four times that rate”
The channels are split between between its specialty retail partnership with Sephora, its distribution in the professional channel and its direct-to-consumer business, the latter of which is up 30 percent.
“The brand is about accessibility. We started as a salon brand, and are still salon-first. But we’ve been able to focus around each segment of hair care,” said Carranza, noting Amika has the top-selling dry shampoo and is doubling down on shampoo and conditioner, which comprise 65 percent of the hair care category.
Amika was a darling of the prestige hair care boom, and the acquisition followed that of Ouai by P&G Beauty and Briogeo by The Wella Co. Both Riggs and Carranza agreed that a lighter approach to branding the products have helped it cut through the clutter.
“In a world of bond builders, we’ve been about basic hair care protection. In our mask business, we have the top hair mask in prestige. It’s focusing on the fundamentals across all elements of the hair category,” Carranza said. “The consumer coming to us can find products that work for her, and we’re continuing to speak to that across all channels.”
Added Riggs, “It’s very hard to stand out when you have a story [like bond-building]. We continue to differentiate ourselves from the market with products that are approachable. We’ll continue to do that because the consumer is overwhelmed, and we try to pack as many benefits as we can and simplify our products.”
Growth in prestige hair hit 15 percent, according to third-quarter data from Circana. It’s been on an upward trajectory with retailers, too.
“It’s been an unprecedented year in hair,” said Carolyn Bojanowski, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Sephora. “We’ve had a strong e-commerce business and presence in-store, but this year with the marketing that we’ve done, it propelled the category this year that hasn’t happened before.”
Bojanowski credited buzzy, exclusive brands — particularly those playing well on TikTok — that “can speak to the client in a really consumer-friendly way” for the growth.
“[Amika] cuts through in such a fun, youthful, accessible and hip way,” she said. “It’s fun, but it’s serious treatments and professional-grade hair products.”
Among its hero products, Perk Up Dry Shampoo is the top performer in that segment, while it’s still the top mask brand in prestige, said the brand.
“Hair is not just about the maintenance, it’s about the treatments and the skinification of the category,” Bojanowski said. “It’s also about learning what the journey looks like for our clients with textured hair, and that education.”
Riggs is still evaluating other opportunities in adjacent segments and categories, but plans on exercising restraint when it comes to new products. “Fewer, bigger and better is really our mantra,” she said. “We want to continue to grow where we already have a stronghold. Shampoo and conditioner, we’ve been focused on for the last 18 months.”
Amika is going to amplify its communications around its ingredients billed as “clean” and its sustainability efforts, including its recently achieved B Corp. status. “You’re going to see our brand continue to talk about sustainability and the B Corp. certification. We talk about it as progress, not perfection,” Carranza said. “The consumer has so much conversation around sustainability, and there’s all these dynamics related to ‘clean’ and ‘natural.’”
“Our social impact — the clean and effective sustainability story, which is not always top of mind for our consumer — our goal is to shift that,” Riggs said. “We’ve done a lot of brand awareness campaigns this year with those things in mind to accelerate that perception of the brand as this more effective, professional, high-quality brand. All of these things combined have led to this brand taking off.”