Let me ask you a question – would you go to any dentist in any town for your routine check-up? Are you happy to go to any hairdresser who has an appointment? The answer will be no! – we do business with those we like know and trust!
As customers we want to know if we can ‘like know and trust’ the companies we buy from so in this series we ask the person behind some of my favourite natural and organic companies to step out into the spotlight
It’s the turn of Soo Archer from Natures Naturals Ltd
Tell us about yourself and your company?
I worked in travel retail and hospitality, but have always been an organic/sustainable product devotee, so the development of our company was a natural progression for me (forgive the pun).
My husband Bill had also worked in healthcare marketing and informatics for years and the things I learned from his experience made me even more convinced that I should pursue my dream of helping improve peoples’ wellbeing in the most natural way possible.
How did you get started? What were you doing in a previous life?
Apart from my jobs in Spain (yes, everyone has more than one there!), I also had the pleasure of looking after my Mom and Dad for several years as what is now known as a Family Caregiver.
My husband Bill’s parents also started getting quite poorly around that time, so we decided to move back to England in 2002 to be close to them and get my parents to join us. Although it was hard work without any respite, we loved every minute.
I started the company just over 11 years ago in 2004 in a very small way indeed after becoming fed up with the stress involved in international travel arranging to be honest!
When I launched, I sold every essential oil imaginable and I also sold a large range of ambient music CDs. You know, the sort that get played in health spas and so on. Needless to say, things were very slow depending on just these products! As I learned more and more about research and manufacturing though, my ambitions grew!
Then, because Bill’s background in marketing and IT was on tap, it meant I could get all the marketing input I wanted and my website work could be done exactly as I wanted, rather than being hoodwinked by techies.
Why natural / organic / sustainable?
Our parents were pumped full of prescription drugs for various illnesses over the years – effectively ‘over-medicated and under-treated’ – a phrase that Bill coined which we have since used in our marketing, as it is so true!
My mission was to create a range of totally natural products available at sensible prices, to help people improve their wellbeing, without side-effects and contraindications for a wide range of conditions. And to produce products that did not contain harmful parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate, methylisothiazolinone and so on – all horrible nasties that cause cancer and goodness knows what else!
Our first foray into genuine natural product development was in skin care, muscle and joint care and more. Bill had also done masses of research on pulsed electromagnetic wave field therapy and had engaged with several of his Doctor friends around the world, which led to us designing and manufacturing our pain management medical device which is now sold around the World.
What’s your USP? What sets you apart from your competitors?
We are unique in that we research, design and manufacture the products we retail. Every product we produce is totally natural and is never tested on animals, but are of course tested prior to launch on a network of friends, including an officer of the Complementary Medical Association, ex-hospital Governors and so on.
What kind of feedback have you received from clients?
Our customers tend to be very knowledgeable about their conditions and requirements, so this makes their feedback even more valued.
We have consistently received a massive number of unsolicited testimonials, which we now feature on our website along with 5-star reviews on all our products and we have built an impressive database of returning customers on our healthcare products, some of whom have been ordering regularly over the past decade or so. A long-term independent survey we commissioned on PainSolv produced amazing information we couldn’t have made up if we tried!
We’re incredibly proud to have won Platinum Awards for various products every year from 2012 to 2016, which is a tremendous boost.
What’s the next big launch / project coming up for you?
We have gradually built our product range to cater for a specialist range of needs: pain management, respiratory aids, skin care, specialist nutrition and travel first aid. Under those headings we have launched new products each year to our core offerings since 2011.
We have recently launched our new pain management system, which is already flying out and we’ve launched the first of a new natural lip balm range.
Our major new project is re-launching our ecommerce site (www.naturesnaturals.co.uk) which has been running successfully since 2007 in various stages of development. We have spent the past couple of months completely revamping the approach, design and speed at which customers can buy from it and we plan to launch it during the first half of February 2016.
We’re also launching a brand new specialist retail site for the nation’s dog lovers, with a completely unique range of natural wellbeing, healthcare, nutrition and dog hygiene products. The site (www.natural-petcare.co.uk) is due to go live in February and will give dog owners genuinely natural alternatives. After all, what’s good for us has to be good for our pets!
What’s your big dream?
What a question! I guess our dream would be to be acknowledged as leading lights in natural healthcare and personal wellbeing products in the UK. I am totally happy and content with what I’m doing right now, but who knows, we could end up being snapped up by a large company, so that we can spend more time with our family and pets! And perhaps Bill could even get more time on the golf course!
Where can we find your products ?
Our healthcare and personal wellbeing products are available worldwide on our own website as well as through our network of over 50 Authorised Resellers in the UK and around the World (details are on our site):
www.naturesnaturals.co.uk
Our natural range of dog care products is available in the UK only from our own website a: