At a time when many of its industry peers have struggled, Sacha Cosmetics, which is headquartered in Freeport, has rallied and has come out with a unique achievement: it is one of the oldest surviving cosmetic brands for people of colour in the world.
Kama Maharaj, the founder and managing director of the company, told the Business Guardian that while attending a forum, he was informed his brand was listed in a McKinsey report as one of the oldest brands made for, and owned by, people of colour in the world.
“I was a presenter at an international forum hosted by Cariri (Caribbean Industrial Research Institute), with speakers from all over the world. And on my table is the head of entrepreneurship at the University of the West Indies, and he said, ‘You know, I have something interesting to show you,’ Maharaj said, “What are you gotta show me? You know, you say hey, you’re listed as the second oldest black brand in the world. I said well who is number one? He showed me Fashion Fair. I said but they declared bankruptcy. He said well that’s the situation.”
Maharaj said, “As it stands unless they are revived, Sacha is the oldest brand made by people of colour for people of colour.”
According to the McKinsey report, Sacha is indeed the third oldest cosmetic brand established for people of colour following the creation of the hair care product company, Afro Sheen, in the 1960s, and Fashion Fair which was created in 1973, six years before Sacha Cosmetics was created.
Fashion Fair filed for bankruptcy in 2018 but started making moves to restart operations in 2022. Afro Sheen endured a 20-year hiatus before unveiling new products in 2020.
However, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maharaj said he is pleased that his brand has not only managed to stand the test of time but also stand its ground as well.
“We have been around for around 44 years and survive and especially surviving the pandemic, where you’ll see Revlon went bankrupt and even Bed Bath and Body declared bankruptcy on Monday. So, a lot of companies didn’t survive the pandemic. Ironically, Fashion Fair declared bankruptcy before the pandemic,” he said, “As far as we’re concerned, we haven’t heard anything from them for a while and we were still going strong.”
Surviving this rough period, Maharaj said was due to the popularity of its Buttercup powder, which has proven to be a must-have product across the diaspora and the African continent.
However, the success in these various cultures is not surprising to Maharaj as he said T&T’s diverse culture gives the company a distinct advantage over other makeup brands as they were not able to test their products on various skin tones.
Maharaj came up with the idea to develop the Sacha brand when he recognised his mother’s (hairdresser Madame Maharaj) clients often did not have makeup that matched their complexion.
This, he said, has allowed Sacha to prosper despite several other brands being endorsed or in some cases developed by celebrities.
“We have never built a brand on pizzazz and fancy marketing and creating a big celebrity buzz. We developed our brand on high-performance products, but you cannot develop a brand like this unless you have these people to test it on. We could have never developed this brand except for how we did it in Trinidad. Because we have all the skin tones present. For every batch you make, every product you make, you get to test it on light, medium and dark skin. If you’re manufacturing in China, you don’t have that. If you’re in America, Canada, Europe you generally don’t have that but we are surrounded by people of colour,” he said.
He added that the brand was also boosted by the work of influencers around the world, who further elevated the brand.
“You will see these makeup influencers of colour doing a makeover, and then you (see them say), oh yes, and I’m going to set it now. And you’ll see in there they have the Sacha Buttercup powder. So that has given us some international recognition plus via expanding the line into a full Buttercup line. So influencers and Buttercup powder have given us that kind of recognition,” said Maharaj.
“Of course, we have beautiful stores locally and in Panama. We have five stores in Panama doing very well and in the pandemic, everybody closed down except us. So it shows the resilience of the brand and the products. Our products perform exponentially better on darker skin than any other brand in my humble opinion. You know, it is a brand that people locally and the diaspora particularly are very proud of, in fact, abroad It’s a cult brand, you know.”
Maharaj said the brand was planning to build on its growing popularity and is aiming to enter into a franchise arrangement to push Sacha even further.
This approach was both halted and pushed by the pandemic, he explained, as the company saw its international sales via global company Amazon put to pause at the height of COVID-19’s impact.
“It was at a time when we are growing rapidly. we developed our franchise programme, we were ready to launch it. For decades, people bring franchises in and we developed one, a franchise programme to sell franchises worldwide. Pandemic struck. People wearing masks and not going out. We are a makeup company. We were worse hit than anybody else. All the makeup companies suffered. Some went bankrupt, some struggled, some still struggling,” said Maharaj.
“As I said, you know, the greatest bottleneck in business is distribution and we have developed a franchise model of our stores and kiosks and we will soon be launching our franchise programme. The first opportunity we’re going to present local businesses that want to expand globally. If you’re happy being a big fish in a small pond fine, but if you want to operate globally, you can select a market.
The company has also developed a skincare line, which was one of the few cosmetic products which remained a hot seller during the pandemic. Maharaj also added that he has ensured that the brand has been certified halal to allow prospective franchise holders to enter Islamic markets.