The five Bulldog products launched will be available nationwide in all 165 BIG W stores, Australia’s largest discount department store.
“Australia has always been one of the markets that we wanted to expand to… like in the UK, men needed a real choice of male skin care products, beyond those offered by the typical mainstream brands,” said CEO Simon Duffy.
“We also felt that our personality would travel well. There is no language barrier and hopefully our straightforward, masculine and light-hearted tone will be well received,” he told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.
‘For men’ variants damaging market
In Australia, Duffy stated that the company had found that the current array of male skincare brands to be very similar to the UK; with many traditionally female skin care brands offering a ‘for men’ variant.
According to the Bulldog boss, here lies the problem for the male skin care market, as it lacks innovation and relies heavily on these ‘for men’ variants of female products.
“I think this is one of the key reasons why the male skin care category is currently smaller than the female equivalent,” he quipped.
“With Bulldog we wanted to do things differently and set out to design amazing natural products that men would really enjoy using.”
Growth and expansion
Since launching Bulldog in the UK in July 2007, the brand has found that more and more British men are becoming interested in natural products, and this has seen Bulldog products fly off the shelfs, beating the likes of Procter & Gamble and L’Oréal in UK male skin care sales last year.
“I think our success comes down to the fact that we’re different to every other brand in the men’s market and our affordable price point. We’ve found that these factors appeal to men, whether they regularly use grooming products or are newcomers to the male grooming category,” said Duffy.
The brand can now be found in the UK, USA, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Austria and Australia, and is planning further expansion into other international markets throughout the year.
“In 2012 we will be working towards launching in up to five new countries. Australia is the first of these… I also anticipate launching in New Zealand later this year as well,” said Duffy.
“In addition we are currently in discussions with teams in three other places although we have no firm plans to announce just yet.”