The combined skills of Sian Sutherland, Tanya Mackay, Kathy Miller and Jill Dunk has enabled Mama Mio to take on the big boys of the beauty cream market

"We always say Mama Mio is the most selfish skincare brand you’ll ever meet,” says Sian Sutherland, Mama Mio’s chief founding partner. She launched the business alongside Tanya Mackay, Kathy Miller and Jill Dunk in 2005. All three are beauty experts as well as mums, a combination that supplies experience as well as market expertise.

“Every idea for every single product has come from us and what we need,” says Mackay, who adds that successful careers in the beauty industry have left the founders with “a little black book of amazing biochemists”. Starting out with maternity skincare, Mama Mio’s product range has grown to include formulations for anti-ageing, firming, cellulite and dry skin. Quirky products, such as the bust and neck firmer “Boob Tube”, and body shaping cream “Get waisted” have enabled the business to grow 50 per cent year on year. It is expected to turn over £9.5m this year.

Sutherland is the “big bad boss”—“Because she’s the bossiest one of all,” laughs Mackay. Sutherland’s role as chief founding partner includes corporate strategy and product development—her “geeky passion” is “throwing stuff together and making formulas”. Miller, who has a design background, oversees the visual representation of the brand. Dunk, based in the US, is in charge of sales while Mackay heads up PR and marketing. But despite each founder having her own area of expertise, Mackay points out that they all have an input into everything because the brand is a “personal creation of all of them”. 

In the early days, the business was funded by a combination of the founders’ own capital and funds raised through Investec—although Sutherland won’t divulge the figures. In 2008 the founders decided they needed additional funding to boost the US side of the business. They were approached by Bob Nielsen, ex-president of Estee Lauder, who was interested in investing in the brand. “He is famous for being the next big thing guy and he picked us which is amazing,” says Mackay.

Recognising they could also benefit from some strong board experience, the women also asked Nielsen to be chairman. “He has been the brains and vision behind so many iconic Estée Lauder brands,” says Sutherland. “He challenges us a lot, which is a good thing because we’re really close to the coalface,” she says.

The products are made in the US—a very deliberate choice, explains Sutherland. “At that time it made sense both in terms of currency and the fact that the US has such huge potential for us that it seemed sensible to be importing from there rather than exporting from the UK,” she says.

Nevertheless, it’s taken much longer to get a foothold in the US market than it did in the UK. “The first three years we were trying to figure out what the hell we were doing,” says Mackay. “It’s such a huge market with disparate centres, it’s hard to get the impact,” she says.

Sutherland says the founders have learnt to have confidence in themselves. “We don’t play by traditional beauty-brand rules. We don’t know what they are and we don’t want to know what they are. We’re happy doing it our way because it’s working so we just keep on doing it,” she says.

Last year Mama Mio was voted best body shaping range by fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, a competition that pitted the start-up against “the big boys”—established brands including Clarins and L’Oreal. Mackay attributes the victory to Mama Mio’s formula combinations. “Mama Mio has become really well known for products that work. And it’s just common sense. If you put amazing ingredients in at a very high potency the products work. You can’t just wave it over the top of the bottle,” says Mackay.

She adds: “Because we are women running the company rather than accountants, we put a lot of money into our products. We’re able to do that because we don’t spend money on advertising.”

Mackay explains that word of mouth is the preferred advertising strategy. “Our one ambition is to be the most recommended skincare brand in the world. That’s our goal,” she says.