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The death of my brand - Indochine Natural
…. In the early 2000’s my wife and I co-founded Indochine Natural while living in Viet Nam. I’m a qualified chemist, knew what I was doing, and took risks formulating and going in directions that no other brands were venturing at that time.
Business took off, and in a very short time, I had opened a GMP-certified production facility and was exporting globally. Then we relocated to Penang, Malaysia, where I opened another greatly expanded production facility to meet our export demands. At that stage, I was formulating and manufacturing soap bars, liquid soap, and various face/body oils.
With Indochine Natural, I also got involved with assisting those in poverty. This was as a result of my 30+ years working globally as a freelance consultant in the development sector for the World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, etc.
In a fairly short time, 90% of our turnover was coming from Private Label work for various brands globally.
In 2022, I took on an American investor, but things went downhill rapidly. This American, who was in charge of our marketing, started to make very bad decisions, and profitability plummeted.
There was no recovery, so after the American investor had departed, I had no choice but to liquidate all of our equipment to pay debts. And our hard-working, dedicated staff had no jobs.
Once the business side of things had been cleared and all debtors paid, we departed Malaysia in 2024. And that was the end of Indochine Natural.
Some very hard and painful lessons learnt. But a great experience.
I welcome questions via email: mikethair@gmail.com
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This discussion was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by
mikethair.
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This discussion was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by
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13 Replies
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If anyone is looking for help in establishing a skincare brand, I’m available.
you can email me at: mikethair@gmail.com
Kind regards,
Dr Mike Thair
Consultant: Skincare Product Development and Manufacturing.
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What were the lessons you learned (besides don’t hire someone who will drive your business out of business)?
What kind of bad marketing decisions did they make?
Presumably, they thought they were making good decisions.
Did you have the power to approve what they were doing with your brand?
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Hi @Perry44,
“What kind of bad marketing decisions did they make?”
This American decided to offer free shipping (via air) on international orders. Reality was that in most cases (if not all), the international air freight was greater than the cost of our product. As a result, the company started to bleed financially.
“Presumably, they thought they were making good decisions”
Yes indeed, even though I pointed out the negative financial impact.
“Did you have the power to approve what they were doing with your brand?”
I was focused on the growing demand for my services globally for my formulation services. In short, I took my eye off the ball. And as this American was a director in the company, we had equal voting rights. I then went through the legal process of removing her as a Director. But by then it was too late.
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Hi <div>
Some questions if you can answer.
1. Was that free shipping for one consumer retail purchase or bulk?
2. What happened to private labels globally?
3. What happened to your local customers?
</div>
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Hi Abdullah,
In response to your questions:
“1. Was that free shipping for one consumer retail purchase or bulk?”
Free international shipping across retail and bulk purchases (ouch!!)
“2. What happened to private labels globally?”
When we ran out of money, these sales collapsed because we could no longer manufacture.
“3. What happened to your local customers?”
Because we could no longer manufacture due to our massive financial losses, we were no longer able to support sales. However, many of these customers have stayed loyal to my brand, Indochine Natural. And if we were in a position to manufacture, sales would be restored.
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Mike. Sorry it ended but quite a accomplishment and experience.
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Thanks for your very kind words. Appreciated.
On a positive note, it provides a strong basis to provide advice to other companies.
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@mikethair I’m also very sorry for what happened. All my best wishes.
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One investor was able to do all that damage, holding only one vote? It’s a shame the chief financial officer didn’t have any say and allowed that ruin.
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Who was the investor and were they held accountable for the damage they caused?
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It was an American woman, and this incident was subject to legal action by our lawyers. It would be improper for me to name this woman. Later research revealed that she had at least 10 aliases.
And has she had departed Malaysia, it was impossible to pursue the legal action.
Lesson learnt….I’m too trusting.
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We’ve all trusted the wrong people. The bully at my old job is earning $150k a year and destroying the company. SMH. Its hard out there.
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Hi Mike, that is a very sad story. I cannot imagine the pain it caused you seeing something you built with so much love and passion ended because of some one that didn’t care. I am sure she will pay somehow and good things will come for you again. ????
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