JML announces plan to take new JV ‘Brand Evangelists’ to Asia

Innovative consumer group JML announced in June 2017 its majority share acquisition of beauty start-up Brand Evangelists in a deal worth £2.3 million. JML has now signalled its intent to take Brand Evangelists’ disruptive beauty products to the Asian market, starting with Malaysia.

JML, which was founded in 1986, is a British company that develops innovative consumer products which are sold through retail screen promotions, TV home shopping and ecommerce. JML is a household name in the UK and Ireland with a first class reputation built over 30 years. As well as marketing its own brands, JML also distributes many of the leading ‘as seen on TV’ and DRTV products from around the world.

Brand Evangelists (BE) is a company founded by former executives from Boots, a leading health & beauty retailer. BE has developed and launched three new beauty brands which disrupt existing categories and are promoted predominantly through social media. Several more brands are under development and the products are manufactured mainly in the UK. A number of global retailers have already signed up to substantial listings of these new ranges.

JML already operates in Malaysia supplying retailers such as Watsons, Tesco and Dairy Farm Group. JML also has joint ventures in Singapore and Hong Kong and distributors in Thailand and Philippines. Asia will therefore be a key focus for the BE brands.

Commenting on the acquisition of BE earlier in the year, JML’s CEO Ken Daly said, ‘JML is aggressively targeting rapid expansion and our acquisition of Brand Evangelists is part of our strategy to diversify into new categories with a focus on digital marketing targeting a younger demographic. However we are also focusing hard on growing our core business and we are only acquiring new operations that share similar routes to market and similar values. This is to ensure there are synergies and a good cultural fit.’