Tropic Skincare founder Susie Ma paid herself dividends of more than £20m in the past year following the entrepreneur regaining full brand ownership from British business magnate Lord Alan Sugar.
Some £18.2m of this was paid in 2024, with a further £2m being issued in April 2025, according to filings with Companies House, the UK's official company registrar.
The payout came amid a bumper year of trading for the skin care business, founded in 2004, with pre-tax profit jumping 30% to £8.7m in 2024.
Revenues also increased an estimated 8.75% to £68m compared with the same period in 2023.
“A cost saving review was carried out on some of the direct costs, and gross margins saw improvements from this,” Tropic Skincare wrote in the filed documents.
“The company continues to invest in its people, its products, its software and its manufacturing equipment.
“We also continued our commitment to double offset our carbon footprint.”
Tropic Skincare is expecting to see turnover increase through 2025 compared with 2024, and for this to be significantly higher than 2019 pre-covid-19 levels, according to the documents.
In addition to increasing the company’s market share, the business is equally focused on “expanding the number of ambassadors and enhancing product quality” in 2026.
Ma regained full ownership from Lord Sugar in 2023, after she agreed to buy out Lord Sugar’s remaining 50% shares in the company.
After appearing on the seventh season of British business-styled reality game show The Apprentice in 2011, Ma was offered £200,000 in funding from Lord Sugar to invest in the brand.
Lord Sugar’s investment is the only external funding Tropic has received in its 19-year history.
“I will always be so grateful for the investment Lord Sugar made, and the potential he saw in Tropic Skincare with me at the helm,” Ma said when discussing the acquisitions in 2023.
“After founding the company at just 15, and spending every day since building it into the success you see today, reclaiming full ownership has always been my ambition.”