PETER THOMAS ROTH GOES MAINSTREAM
Byline: Kerry Diamond
NEW YORK — Just a year ago, Peter Thomas Roth Clinical Skin Care was a niche treatment line, found only in high-end spas and salons. Today, its cult status is in danger.
With a mainstreaming of distribution to high-volume outlets like Sephora, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, the brand hit nearly $15 million in retail volume in 1998 and sales are expected to more than double this year, according to industry sources.
Part of the reason for the major sales growth is Sephora, said June Jacobs, who owns the line with namesake Peter Thomas Roth and is president of the brand. All the Sephora stores carry the Roth brand.
“We think it’s a wonderful brand,” said Steve Bock, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing for Sephora. “It’s innovative, clean and serious.”
He also added that Peter Thomas Roth is the chain’s best-selling nontraditional skin care line. According to Jacobs, talks are under way about carrying the line in the chain’s Asian and European locations.
Roth’s owners aren’t relying solely on Sephora for a healthy year. The brand will roll out into six Saks Fifth Avenue locations, beginning in February, and negotiations are under way with Bergdorf Goodman.
The line was launched in spring 1993 by Jacobs and Roth, who were friends for 20 years. She had done public relations for a plastic surgeon upon graduating from college, then helped a dermatologist start a skin care line. Roth, who doesn’t have a skin care background, handles the creative end of the business, including packaging design and the catalogs.
Jacobs knew how crowded the skin care field was when getting ready to launch Peter Thomas Roth Clinical Skin Care, but she was undaunted. “I had so many skin care problems and so did Peter,” she noted. “We said we were going to come out with a line that works for everybody. My goal was to help people so they wouldn’t suffer anymore.”
One of the first retailers to get behind Peter Thomas Roth Clinical Skin Care was Bliss. The popular SoHo spa first started selling Roth’s sunscreens when it opened in July 1996. Now, Peter Thomas Roth products are carried in the spa’s BlissOut catalog and a selection of items is featured in Bliss’s on-site boutique. The catalog is mailed to 240,000 households.
“When we decided to do the catalog, it was one of the first companies to get behind the catalog and support it,” said Kelly Kovack, managing director of BlissOut. “We’ve both grown a very nice business together. It’s one of our top sellers.”
Since Bliss opened, the spa and its featured products have gotten extensive media coverage — thanks in part to Bliss’s celebrity following. For Roth, this has helped build up consumer demand and retailer interest and make up for the fact that the company does not advertise.
Today, the entire line has grown to more than 100 stockkeeping units, which include cleansers, facial scrubs, masks, moisturizers, eye creams, sun care products, skin lighteners, hair and body items, vitamin A and C products plus a line of peels and masks for skin care practitioners.
Some bestsellers are Chamomile Cleansing Lotion, Oil-Free Sunblock SPF 30, Botanical Buffing Beads, Power C Souffle, AHA/BHA Acne Clearing Gel and Oil-Free Moisturizer.
Retail prices for the line range from $18 for a 4-oz. medicated shaving cream to $85 for Power C 20 Anti-Oxidant Serum Gel in a 1-oz. size.
John Kressaty, the head chemist and technical director for Peter Thomas Roth, said two reasons for the line’s success are “purity and action.”
“Our labels don’t have 57 ingredients,” he said. “We use all high-quality ingredients, which is why you get better action and results. We’re not frugal at all when it comes to ingredients.”
All Peter Thomas Roth products are produced at the company’s manufacturing facility outside New York City.
Also, he and Jacobs noted, Roth is upfront on its packaging about the percentages of active ingredients contained in the products.
“Why should you hide that from the customer?” asked Jacobs. “If they are going to buy the product, they want to know what it contains.”
Several new products are added to the Peter Thomas Roth line each year. For 1999, the company will be introducing some vitamin K items, including a gel for under-eye circles and a cream for spider veins.
Vitamin K, explained Kressaty, helps clot the blood and reroutes it away from the skin’s surface. He added that certain under-eye circles are caused by people rubbing the skin under their eyes and breaking capillaries.