GOSH Cosmetics - Making an impact

When Einer Tjellesen came across the four letter clue ‘GOSH’ while doing his crossword puzzle one day, he knew he had to name his new company the very same thing.

If you go into high street retailers and drugstores in over 66 countries worldwide you will see a display of high-colour, high-fashion cosmetics which the manufacturer hopes “will leap of the shelf at you and capture your imagination”. Either way, the image will be memorable.

This company is GOSH Cosmetics, a family-owned and run Danish enterprise, which has flourished from humble roots as a pharmaceutical supplier in its native country to being a successful export all over the world.

From tiny acorns

Einer Tjellesen, a Danish businessman launched GOSH (as it is commonly known) in 1945. Back then it manufactured and supplied high grade pharmaceutical products to the medical and health sector. It had such success on home soil that in the early 1950s it was big enough to launch in the C&T market, producing cosmetics and fragrances for leading Danish lines. Several years later in 1979, Tjellesen took the plunge and launched the first cosmetic products under the actual GOSH name.

The company has never looked back. Though it does still supply pharmaceutical items, such as pregnancy testing kits, to three or four countries in Europe, the backbone of the company consists of its own, highly lucrative line of colourful cosmetics, sensual fragrances and extensive hair care products.

Famously private, Einer Tjellesen, who passed away in the late 1990s, involved his son Bo in the company in the early stages of its GOSH success. The family-focused company is extremely private about its profits so no financial figures are disclosed, however the very noticeable presence of GOSH in Europe, and indeed worldwide, shows that this is one of the best Danish exports since Helena Christiansen.

Being bold

This is certainly something with which GOSH’s international marketing manager Morten Schmidt would concur. While equally tight-lipped about the numbers, Schmidt will say that GOSH has no credit crunch concerns as yet and the company predicts a “very healthy” profit by the end of 2009.

“We are very lucky to be present in 66 countries worldwide and to have success, at varying levels of course, in all of them. Although we are already in the UK, Russia, the US, Canada, the Middle East, Asia and of course our native Scandinavia, expansion and development overseas are key to our business strategy.” By the end of this year alone GOSH will have added significantly to that list with planned openings in Hong Kong, Spain, Italy and France. It would seem that aside from broadening its Asian presence, GOSH is very much targeting Europe this year.

In Denmark alone GOSH is present in 400 doors in the Matas chain of stores as well as in more mass market supermarket chains. Up to now GOSH has always appeared in a concession form in large chain retail stores such as Superdrug in the UK, Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada and AS Watson in Asia. The company is launching its first stand-alone offering in the United Arab Emirates where it is opening a concept store in Dubai soon.

“While expansion is important to our plans, it is crucial that we do not neglect the customers who have made GOSH what it is today – the Danes. For other countries to take on the brand they must see how beloved we are as a brand in our own country. Brand identity is everything to GOSH – it is what makes us different and unique. No one else offers a selection as vast as ours, and at such a reasonable price.”

The GOSH headquarters are based in Lynge, 25km north of Copenhagen, and apart from a short move a year ago into bigger premises down the road, this part of Denmark has always been its home. There are approximately 150 staff working at the site where all GOSH product development, production and distribution takes place.

“You can buy a GOSH product anywhere in the world and it will have been thought of, made and shipped from Lynge,” says Schmidt. “That is the way we have always done things here, we like to keep everything central. Our staff are very loyal and many have been here from the beginning. When we moved to these new premises we also took on lots of new employees but the company is still a manageable size.”

The company is particularly well known for its cosmetics products but its hair care range, which has been selling well in Scandinavian countries for many years, has been redeveloped and will be launched in Asia, the UK and some Eastern European markets within the next three months.

Says Schmidt: “What is interesting about GOSH is that different things sell well in different markets. In our core Scandinavian market (comprising Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland) our body care, hair care and fragrances sell just as well as our cosmetics range. But we normally launch into a country like the UK for example with just the make-up to see how it is received.

“Then when we have established our position in the market and started getting some healthy profit ringing through the tills, we can introduce other things like hair care. We are hoping that it will be a lucrative step for us.”

Straight talking

There are a couple of noticeable things about GOSH as a business. One is, despite its evident success, that it very rarely spends money on advertising, preferring to use its budgets to develop new product formulations. Any advertising is taken in hand, and often paid for, by the retailer in that particular country.

The other is that it does not sell its products through its own website (www.gosh.dk) instead the franchise sites (www.goshamericas.com or www.gosheurope.com) take care of this side of the business.

Schmidt says simply that the company itself “doesn’t currently want to go down this route” and one gets the impression that any web sales are seen as a bonus. Instead GOSH is happy to plough the majority of its investment into creating, instigating and maintaining its brand identity. Any GOSH counter worldwide will have a series of large and glossy model images surrounding the products themselves – it is one of the strict conditions of the marketing team.

“The key thing with GOSH is that we have a unique identity, captivating images and a fresh, bold look. It is vital that we stand out and that is part of the reason that we usually work with just one

retailer per foreign market, it helps us to streamline our image and focus and to maintain the focus on us,” says Schmidt. “I would say that overall 75% of GOSH’s sales comes from the cosmetics and 25% from the other areas. But we have high hopes that the natural and ecological appeal of our hair care range will reap rewards with our overseas customers this year and going forwards.”

It seems that GOSH has all bases covered and with its inexpensive price point, it can bridge the gap between the Collection 2000’s and the Maybellines easily and effortlessly. And with 75 new colour planned per market per season, a slick and recognisable identity in place and further international expansion imminent, the sky would seem to be the limit.