Indigo wild

Indigo wild

We’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some amazing characters, both human and nonhuman, along the way. We’ve seen an owl incubating her eggs, we’ve watched the dappled horse, we’ve listened to the pack of wolves yipping in the distance. We did, in fact, see the indigo wild.Indigo Wild began down the acquisition path about three years ago when Voth was preoccupied with roles that didn’t fuel her creative juices. Industry matchmaker Andrew Shore, managing director of investment bank Moelis & Co., connected her company to HKW. Indigo Wild is the private equity firm’s only beauty investment so far. Voth says her company complements its wellness platform. HKW’s portfolio contains Fresh Direct Produce, Protect Plus Air, PANOS Brands and Allied Vision Group.At the time of the deal, John Carsello, partner at HKW, concurred, saying, “Indigo Wild represents an ideal fit for HKW and our investment approach. The business aligns seamlessly into HKW’s health and wellness sector focus and also has a tremendous track record of growth, customer loyalty and product innovation.”

Indigo

Stacy has freed up Voth to concentrate on developing products like facial care. Indigo Wild has a facial care collection with a cleanser, toner, facial oil, scrubs and eye butter priced from $14 to $22. Laundry soap has been a priority, too. Indigo Wild’s Zum laundry soap has only four clean ingredients, and features aromatherapy scents such as sea salt, and frankincense and myrrh. It retails from $14.25 to $21. Voth says, “It is our fastest-growing [merchandise] because there really aren’t many laundry soaps that are not detergents on the market.”Despite selling a majority stake in Indigo Wild, Voth retains final approval on products. “People ask if we are going to get into CBD and I say, ‘No.’ We’ve never been followers,’ she says. “We do plant-based beauty in a different way and, at this point, there is no proof in the benefits.” Voth’s knack for product trends nudged her into the beauty industry in the first place. She was passionate about plant ingredients before clean beauty became a movement. Like many entrepreneurs, her passion to offer something better was her entry into the beauty business.

Voth was working for Sprint when she dove into natural products upon noticing an alarming amount of synthetic chemicals in traditional personal care lines. She and her husband kept toiling at their day jobs as Indigo Wild got underway. They crafted products during their free time and sold them at farmer’s markets. She remembers selling out of her entire inventory at a farmer’s market—$500 worth of products—that she realized probably cost her $5,000 to make by hand. Undeterred, Voth studied ingredients over her lunch hour and dreamed of the day she could “bring my dog to work and listen to music.The sales multiplied as Indigo Wild’s distribution ballooned to more than 4,400 grocery and specialty retailers along with e-tailers and its direct-to-consumer channel. Employee count soared, too, from a few original employees to more than 30 today at the company’s facility in Kansas City. Its initial employee, Betsy, is still on staff, and one of Indigo Wild’s 33 Zum Bar Goat Milk Soaps is named after her. The company donates a portion of the soap’s sales to breast cancer research in honor of her fight with the disease. (Source: www.beautyindependent.com)