Joe Fresh Beauty was Loblaw Companies’ first foray into private label cosmetics. When chosen to lead this highly complex initiative, my experience in cosmetics development had been zilch. So with just over one year to bring this high-profile program to market, the pressure was ON!

How would Joe Fresh (a new apparel brand) translate into a cosmetic one? What was the product strategy? The retail, cost/margin, promotional strategy? How would I meet expectations of the business, gain and maintain stakeholder alignment, and ensure consistency of brand standards across multiple vendors throughout the development process? Oh yes, AND, launch the program in time for spring?!

The questions were endless and the answers were unknown – the business was embarking on a brand new journey and paving the way, fell squarely upon my shoulders.

The Goods:

• Joe Fresh Beauty debuted March 2009, on time! – gracing the shelves of over 260 Loblaws stores nationwide
• By pioneering Loblaws’ first turn-key development model, I created a process that increased speed-to-market and enabled a comprehensive launch within exceptionally tight and unprecedented timelines
• Consisting of 200 cosmetic products, each SKU was on time and in-store for the launch date
• Identified key trends/must-have items for the line-up, three were executed and ranked in the top 10 sales (Y1)
• Within six months of the launch, sales were exceeding forecasts and on-track to double by year end