The 6AM Agency Resilience & Rebounds Series #4 with Dave Fenlon

David vs Goliath in the Natural Health & Beauty Industry – How Disruptor Brands are Showing us the Way marks the fourth in the The 6AM Agency ‘Resilience & Rebounds’ Series with Australia’s leaders in business, health and environment. This round was a virtual lunch with successful business leader, Dave Fenlon.

November 4 saw the fourth of the 6AM Resilience & Rebounds Series, a one-hour virtual lunch with Dave Fenlon, a successful business leader with more than 25 years’ experience and today Group CEO and Managing Director of ASX-listd BWX Ltd, driving growth in some of Australia’s most successful natural beauty and wellness brands.

Talking with a virtual gathering of fifteen senior executives from around Australia, Fenlon shared insights of how BWX is proudly growing a range of products that empowers consumers to make conscious choices to support their health and the health of the planet.

The guests from sectors across FMCG, Nutrition, Complementary Medicine, Pet Health and Insurance, Beauty and Practitioner brands, amongst others were treated to the strategy that BWX has implemented to build and grow a leading portfolio of trusted natural wellness brands in markets around the world by showing up where consumers are shopping.

Critical to expansion and education is a complementary omni-channel approach, ensuring the presence of its brands are evolving with the shopping habits of consumers. This strategy involves a combination of e-tailer partnerships, owned e-commerce sites and global retail partnerships.

Natural also requires investment in sustainable credentials, from source of ingredients through to packaging. To get that balance right, BWX invests in research and development and category and consumer insights. Importantly, the company will further improve life-cycle packaging sustainability and being carbon positive.

Fenlon said consumers who have started the natural journey are looking for skin, hair, body and hand care to do the job it’s meant to do.

Aside from product, another key differentiator for the business is people. Fenlon said the company invests heavily in building capability and operates a values driven organisation that underpins everyone’s behaviour and accountability, all the way up to the Board. Values of wellness, diversity, bravery, respect and innovation.

Looking ahead, BWX will continue to innovate and disrupt itself, to ensure it carves out a role as the leader in natural beauty. The company’s BWX Tomorrow reflects the company’s commitment to investing in the future. With a strategic focus on natural skincare and adjacencies, BWX Tomorrow currently has five investments via its incubator model.

Fenlon said the organisation’s focus is built around four key pillars:

1. Connect to Consumers with clever marketing investment, education and enhanced direct-to-consumer channels
2. Go Global, Go Mainstream with a balanced revenue spread in key markets and leveraging macro-economic tailwinds to support growth
3. Invest in Ourselves through added capability and more sustainable group practices
4. Get Clean and Get Healthy with a three-year strategy that is built from deep analytical insights and bottom-up operational plans

In closing, Fenlon shared some personal insights on this leadership, which included “holding a firm opinion but holding it lightly”, which he said means “being brave and changing your mind when new information comes to light.”

6AM CEO Gillian Fish remarked in the wrap up that ‘conscious’ seems to be the mantra for Dave as a leader and for the business itself – conscious consumerism to conscious investment in people and product through the business.

Another outstanding session, with much for our guests to consider against the needs of their audiences.

About Dave Fenlon

Dave Fenlon is a CEO with over 25 years of experience in FMCG, retail and services across Europe and Oceania with extensive experience at Board level – as chair, member and non-executive director across charity, government, advisory and private sectors. He has enjoyed an elaborate career in both public and private businesses, building success both for other businesses and his own, across Europe, Australia and Asia. Mr Fenlon joined Blackmores in 2013 as Managing Director. In 2019 he was appointed Group CEO and Managing Director of BWX Ltd, leading some of Australia’s most successful brands including Sukin and Nourished Life. His passion for building businesses has seen the launch of Nourished Ventures/BWX Incubator with investments in Vitable, GoodnessMe, Flora and Fauna and Go-To, the multi-million dollar beauty brand by Zoe Foster-Blake.

6AM RESILIENCE & REBOUNDS SESSION #5 WITH DAVID SHEIN – NOVEMBER 23, 2021

We now look forward to the fifth in our Resilience & Rebounds series talk – Five Lessons from Australia’s First Unicorn – Key Performance Indicators to Measure Success, which takes place on 23 November. This features David Shein, former Founder and CEO of Comm Tech Communications, which was sold to Dimension Data for more than $1bn, Co-Founder of Our Innovation Fund, an early stage venture capital fund, and founding partner in the Israeli venture capital platform, OurCrowd, the world’s first global equity crowdfunding platform.

Each guest will receive a FREE copy of David Shein’s book The Dumbest Guy at the Table (2021). 

For more information, email gill.fish@the6amagency.com.au or get in touch here.