An overlooked sector that could drive UK growth? The beauty industry
The recent listing of the Beauty Tech Group is just one sign of the beauty industry’s growth-driving potential, writes British Beauty Council CEO Millie Kendall in today’s Notebook
Beauty Tech Group listing shows industry power to drive growth
The recent listing of the Beauty Tech Group on the London Stock Exchange offered a welcome lift to the capital’s struggling market – and a reminder of the growing power of the British beauty industry.
Worth £30.4bn a year and employing almost 700,000 people, according to our latest Value of Beauty (VOB) report, the sector is expanding at more than four times the national average.
Britons now spend more on beauty than on football, gyms and amusement parks combined, while its £9.4bn annual tax contribution exceeds the entire budget of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Yet beauty’s real value lies in what it could still deliver. With the right support, it can regenerate high streets, create skilled jobs and lead in responsible innovation.
As the government’s £5bn Pride in Place regeneration fund, New Youth Guarantee and apprenticeship drive take shape, beauty businesses will be vital partners.
The VOB report shows that for every pound spent on beauty, a further pound is spent on surrounding businesses.
With 95 per cent of the industry made up of small enterprises, if every salon or hairdresser took on one trainee, over 100,000 new jobs would be created overnight – roles that are inclusive, accessible and resilient to automation.
Far from old-fashioned, the modern beauty sector blends creativity with technology, from AI-driven skin diagnostics to hi tech treatments and digital consultations.
Initiatives like the L’Oréal Business Academy are already helping entrepreneurs upskill and digitalise their businesses.
To unlock this potential, government must ensure fairer business rates, sustained apprenticeship support, better access to funding and closer UK-EU cooperation on chemicals regulation to allow businesses large and small to trade and grow.
The theme of this year’s Beauty Week was the Future of Beauty, and given the right conditions, that could also be the future of Britain.
Cleaning up beauty’s plastic problem
Packaging that has a second life as garden compost, make-up wipes that dissolve in water and edible wrapping made from seaweed are among the solutions to beauty’s “plastic problem”.
Fast-growing British company Shellworks has developed an alternative to plastic that, once you have finished with it, decomposes on your compost heap. Insta Melt wet wipes, supported by the BBCo’s Venrex fund, dissolve in seconds in water after use and London-based Notpla wrapping derived from seaweed fully biodegrades – even in your stomach.
These products were among those being showcased and discussed at the annual Plastic Solutions Summit, part of the British Beauty Week. They are desperately needed to replace the 120bn plastic packages used and thrown away annually by consumers.
They will not only drastically reduce landfill but also bring an end to the thousands of blockages and fat bergs that affect London’s sewage network a year – and which costs Thames Water £18m a year. It means you can not only look good but feel good too.
Talking about our re-generation
The future of youthful beauty is regeneration technology. Companies like the Manchester-based Beauty Tech Group, L’Oreal and London’s Lyma produce infra-red light, lasers and ultrasound to hold back – and even reverse – the march of time.
Infrared face masks, radio frequency needling, 3D facial mapping, sonic massages and laser treatments are the treatments enjoyed by Hollywood stars that will soon be available in your home.
Like every other aspect of our lives, technology is about to change beauty as it becomes more affordable and user friendly.
A recommendation: My favourite London spot
I love my work and London but both are so busy I need to unwind – and Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath offers me a sanctuary of calm and beauty.
I need the air, the oxygen, the exercise; sitting at a desk all day is brutal and the freedom to roam the heath is my weekend escape.
The sweeping views make it the perfect antidote to busy urban life.
Kenwood’s historic house, designed by Robert Adam, is a neoclassical masterpiece, home to beautiful art by English, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, as well as sublimely elegant rooms.
Its 112 acres of landscaped gardens and ancient woodland invite slow wandering, while the nearby ponds offer peaceful reflection and to some, though not me, wild swims.
Whether exploring the Great Library, strolling the heath or simply sitting beneath the trees, Kenwood and Hampstead Heath together provide a timeless escape for body and mind.
Millie Kendall OBE is the founder and CEO of the British Beauty Council