Beauty Secrets ventures into global market
Good packaging is like telling a story right from the cover of a book; it attracts and leads the customer on to try the product.
Ghanaian small scale manufacturer of cosmetics and beauty products, Solutions Oasis, which owns the Beauty Secrets trademark, does not only typify this scenario, it goes a step further to ensure that wrapped within the packaging cover are veritable contents that deliver on their promises.
Consequently, it is uncommon to find Beauty Secrets predominating local shops because the company has to satisfy the American and European markets with their irresistible shea and cocoa butter based products.
The Chief Executive Officer of Solutions Oasis, which produces the Beauty Secrets range of products, Mrs Francesca Brenda Opoku, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS at the just-ended solo Exhibition of Made-in-Ghana products and services in Monrovia, Liberia, that the small company was working hard to ensure its products get to shelves across the world.
Over 40 small and medium scale enterprises exhibited their wares at the solo exhibition with sponsorship from the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF). The fair was organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Council, in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the largest umbrella body of the manufacturing sector.
Based in Haatso, Accra, Solutions Oasis currently has in its portfolio shea butter, cocoa butter and black soap (alata samina) mixed with shea. The products are readily accepted in several markets in Africa and the advanced world.
The former Brands Manager at SC Johnson and Senior Marketing Manager at Masai Computers said from small beginnings, an average of two tonnes a month of shea/cocoa butter and black soap of the Beauty Secrets range were now exported to several markets, including the United States, Australia and Nigeria.
“So far people like our products wherever we go; the point we want to make is that quality can come out of Ghana,” she said.
Business model and job creation
With her background in marketing, Francesca has positioned Solution Oasis Ltd as the face of the hardworking people in villages where it sources its raw materials.
It engages professional hands at every stage of the process, while harnessing the company’s marketing prowess to market the Beauty Secrets to far and near destinations.
Beauty Secrets works with cooperatives in communities in the Northern, Eastern and Central regions to source semi-processed raw materials for primary processing in the Central Region and final finishing at its factory at Haatso, Accra.
Although the company offers employment to 15 persons, it works with a lot of cooperatives on the value chain after providing them with training for skills to ensure quality.
Mrs Opoku told this reporter that working through cooperatives helped the company to generate employment for about 200 persons across the value chain.
Beauty Secrets is hoping to introduce a liquid black soap onto the Ghanaian market before the close of the year.