In The News: vegan product formulas, ingredient distribution acquisitions and rebrand

The Body Shop portfolio of formulas gets vegan certification and TRI rebrands to Catalynt after acquiring two suppliers in 2023.

Photo by Galina N on Unsplash

🚫🐭Vegan Verification

Product safety and sustainability, as well as an ethical supply chain are in demand with beauty consumers today and of very real importance to our industry. “This accomplishment is an expression of our changemaking ethos, and goes back to our roots of championing animal welfare,” says The Body Shop’s VP of Brand and Activism here in North America in a recent item announcing certification by The Vegan Society.

And Hilary Lloyd continues, noting the beauty maker’s efforts to become fully vegan and the intention to set an example for the industry: “Offering a 100% vegan certified product portfolio is an achievement we have been working towards for years, and is not one we take lightly. Our hope is that more global beauty brands follow suit and realize the ways in which natural-origin, vegan, cruelty-free beauty can benefit our people and our planet without compromising product efficacy.”

To be clear, it is the brand’s product formulations that have been certified by The Vegan Society. And it won’t be until Fall of this year when all product available in-store will be certified; in the meantime, The Body Shop will sell through existing product that may not have been certified.  

The Vegan Society is a UK charity, founded in 1944. In 1990 The Vegan Trademark was introduced to recognize products that are free from animal ingredients and do not use animal testing. According to the organization, more than 65,000 products in beauty, food, beverage, household, apparel, etc. carry The Vegan Trademark globally.

The Society’s Director of Business Development, Chantelle Adkins, shares Lloyd’s sentiment that this Body Shop initiative will encourage other global cosmetic and personal care brands to follow suit: “Today,” she says in a recent press release, “we are extending a massive congratulations to The Body Shop for achieving 100% of their product formulations being vegan and certified with The Vegan Society's Vegan Trademark. This has been a massive project for them and showcases their commitment and dedication to vegan beauty. We hope that this significant step sets a global standard for other beauty brands to follow and inspires further change to reduce animal use and exploitation across the industry.”

💋🧪📈Growth Strategy

With two acquisition announcements and a full rebrand, Washington state – based beauty raw materials and ingredient distributor TRInternational (commonly known as TRI) is now Catalynt.

“With these companies now working together as one,” says CEO Megan Gluth-Bohan, “we can truly match the speed and agility our customers require….Under this new umbrella of Catalynt, we're a more robust company that will work even faster, smarter and better than before.”

The companies she’s referring to are, of course, TRI and the recently acquired ChemBlend of America (July 2023) and American Chemie (December 2023). ChemBlend increases the company’s lab services capabilities (formulating, manufacturing, testing, etc.); while American Chemie brings further distribution offerings in the personal care and cosmetics sector as well as in other industries such as nutraceuticals, lubricants, animal feed, food, and more.

And it’s not just the company Gluth-Bohan leads that has an impressive growth trajectory, but her own career as well. According to Monday’s press release, she joined TRI in 2012 as General Counsel, by 2018 had advanced to the role of CEO, and in 2021 took full ownership of the company.

Fun fact, Catalynt is a portmanteau, blending ‘catalyst’ and ‘talent’, word that Gluth-Bohan says “capture [the] team's energy, skillset and dedication to hard work.”

Curious to learn more about Catalynt? google won’t help you on this one yet, so I will: https://teamcatalynt.com/ 

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