Unlock the Editorâ€s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
In the Bradford factory where Astonish makes its discount brand of cleaning and personal care products, all is calm. Bottles of toilet gel whizz smoothly at 150 units a minute along an automated filling and bagging line, with 20 workers overseeing the German and Japanese equipment. Noise is diffused in the 16-metre-high hangar space.
Astonish sales have more than doubled since it moved to this £30mn facility two years ago, and the company keeps growing. Bottle caps that were once tapped on by hand are fixed automatically. “I canâ€t have unreliable machines or unreliable people,†says Andy Ellams, operations director.
Its founder sold a cleaning paste at shows such as the Ideal Home Exhibition, but it is now a mature business making 90 products, from cleaning fluids to shampoos. The West Yorkshire family firm, which employs 110 people, undercuts rivals to offer its Toilet Fresh gel for £1 a bottle at Poundland.
The companyâ€s expansion reflects that of UK discount retailers over three decades. Its products started to be stocked at Home Bargains, Poundland and B&M in the mid-1990s as cheap alternatives to established brands such as Flash and Dettol. They are now infiltrating the mainstream.
Astonish Mould & Mildew Blaster spray, highly recommended by social media “cleanfluencersâ€, can be ordered from online grocer Ocado. Some of the Astonish range was last month stocked for the first time in the “Low Everyday Price†range at Tesco, the UKâ€s biggest supermarket.
“I am 50 years old, I love my work, and what a pleasure to punch so far above our weight in a market dominated by the corporate beasts,†says Howard Moss. His father Alan founded Astonish in a shed in Leeds in 1969 but Howard is now sole owner of a business with projected sales of £75mn this financial year — a 29 per cent rise.
The Astonish formula is to replicate the performance of leading brands at a price well below theirs, although slightly above retailers†own brands. A large price gap is key: “We could make a washing-up liquid tomorrow, but not something as good as Fairy for half the price, so we donâ€t,†Moss says.
Astonish is not the only challenger brand to be propelled by discounting and online fandom. The Pink Stuff, another paste that became a cleaning portfolio, rose to fame in the pandemic, thanks to the Instagram evangelism of Sophie Hinchcliffe, known as Mrs Hinch.
But while The Pink Stuffâ€s owner Star Brands agreed a 2019 management buy-in backed by the private equity group Mobeus, Astonish is almost comically unleveraged by todayâ€s standards. Moss has already repaid a £15mn loan to build and fit out his factory and sits on £137mn of equity. He says he is content to remain its proprietor, helped by a close-knit management team.
Astonish has another unusual quality: none of its output is tested on animals or contains animal products such as tallow. The emphasis on purity goes back a long way: its original paste was non-toxic and biodegradable and Alan Moss used to show that off at exhibitions by smearing some of it on his lips.
Veganism is as much a commercial decision as an ethical one. “If Iâ€m being honest, my father thought, ‘this is an attractive way to market a product so if we can take a stance, letâ€s do itâ€,†Moss says. But it is genuine: Astonish products are approved by the Vegan Society and Cruelty-Free International.
It complies by developing its own products in an on-site laboratory staffed by four chemists. It selects industrial chemicals and fragrances and prides itself on launching items faster than multinationals such as Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever (Astonish also distributes to 20 international markets).
Olivia Young, one of the chemists, says it will often test and market a new cleaner in six months, while others can take double the time. This speed enabled it to diversify rapidly into personal care and hygiene following the pandemic: products such as hand soaps now account for 30 per cent of sales.
Astonish is a cheap and cheerful operation, making lean manufacturing and management work in its favour. If some of its new products fail, it is robust enough financially not to mind too much, Moss reflects. “This place is built on absolute granite but the enjoyment factor is, letâ€s disrupt.â€
Bradford, once known for its woollen mills, has suffered industrial decline. Such change in the UK economy, writ large, has contributed to the rise of discount retailers. But in one Yorkshire factory, something shines.
john.gapper@ft.com
