Tracey Ryan isn’t afraid to do things her way – including marriage proposals.
“I’m a huge fan of The Cure,” smiles the Bia Beauty entrepreneur. “So when my then boyfriend Gav and I went to see them at Electric Picnic two years ago, I was kind of thinking: ‘Should I ask him to marry me?’, because when we first got together I had warned him never to ask me, because I would not marry anybody.
“But when The Cure played my favourite song, Just Like Heaven, I asked him ... and I got the answer I wanted.”
Likewise, when it comes to Bia Beauty, Tracey has not always been so traditional either.
Set up at her kitchen table shortly after the birth of her son with a €3,000 loan from a friend, the Irish natural skincare company is projecting sales of €500,000 next year. And you can literally smell the sweet success at Bia Beauty’s production unit just outside Cork, where bottles of essential oils and dried flowers with fragrant labels – such as sweet fennel, apple and orange blossom water, calendula and sweet almond – line the shelves like an old-fashioned apothecary.
“I said at the start that if I can’t eat it I’m not putting it in, because your skin absorbs 60% of what you put on it,” says Tracey, twisting the lid off a jar of her best-selling orange and grapefruit cleanser and exfoliator, which smells good enough to scoff. With the exception of a filling machine, all of Bia Beauty’s products are made using traditional methods and infused with nourishing ingredients, from sustainably sourced shea butter from a women’s collective in Ghana, to beeswax from west Cork.
However, Tracey did not become a skincare guru overnight. Having initially embarked on philosophy studies at Trinity College Dublin, she soon switched to arts in Cork, but after a year decided it wasn’t for her.
“I just could not figure out what I wanted to do,” says Tracey, who grew up in Thurles and whose father Martin “Birdie” Ryan was once a professional footballer for Reading.
Her decision to study horticulture at The Organic College in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick, unearthed her love for working with plants. Tracey completed a degree in herbal science at CIT with a view to training as a medical herbalist.
Kitchen table startup
However, the arrival of her son Feidhlim, the summer before her final year, planted the seed for Bia Beauty after she started making simple, natural baby shampoos and nappy creams at her kitchen table. But juggling a new baby, a startup business and college was a challenge.
“Feidhlim was born in July and I went back into my final year at the end of September. Gav used to drive him over in between the breaks so I could breastfeed him and then I’d run back into college,” she recalls.
“But in the middle of it all Bia Beauty came about. I was literally clearing down the kitchen table in the evening and hunting everyone out.”
Having received positive feedback at local markets, Tracey needed modest investment to bring her products to retailers. Daunted by the idea of dealing with the bank, she took up a friend’s offer of a €3,000 loan in November 2011 to bulk-buy ingredients and invest in professional packaging and photography.
“I knew that I had a luxury product, but if I put it inside an amateur little package it wasn’t going to look good and I wasn’t going to be able to charge the proper money for it,” she says.
It obviously paid off. Just after Christmas, she had reimbursed her friend and had the confidence to approach the credit union for a €5,000 loan to invest in further design and a website.
Meanwhile, winning an online competition run by Niall Harbison – a former elite private chef turned entrepreneur – for a €10,000 investment in exchange for a 10% stake in the business, allowed Bia Beauty to say goodbye to the kitchen table and hello to its first premises.
“Niall started his business with €10,000 in a spare bedroom, so he wanted to give a similar business a kickstart,” explains Tracey. (Though, with good grace, Harbison later accepted Bia Beauty’s offer to buy back his stake.)
With the support of a back-to-work allowance and enterprise grants, Tracey officially launched Bia Beauty in September 2012, focusing initially on supplying health stores and pharmacies. A major pinch-me moment was when Avoca rang out of the blue.
“It was incredible to be told: ‘Avoca really wants your product’,” says Tracey, with new additions to its 150-strong stockist list including Lloyds pharmacies, Mothercare online and Blarney Woollen Mills, not to mention website sales as far as the US and Australia.
Indeed, Tracey has received overseas interest from buyers in Germany, Britain and even Asia, and sees export as the next logical step. Having idolised the late Anita Roddick – founder of The Body Shop – Tracey believes Bia Beauty has the potential to carve out a similar niche in ethical skincare internationally.
Sales last year totalled €100,000, she’s on track for €200,000 this year and aiming for €500,000 next year.
“I know brands like Trilogy and Dr Hauschka are there, but there’s no big name saying: ‘These are my ingredients, these are good for you’, so if I could do that with my business, that would be great,” she says.
However, her first ambition is to make Bia Beauty a household name in Ireland. And it’s all hands on deck to achieve that. Literally.
“Gav often comes home stinking of lemon myrtle hand cream,” laughs Tracey.
• “It didn’t come naturally to me to be a salesperson. Even now, if I have to pick up the phone to try to sell something, my first instinct is to do something else. But it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be.”• “The best thing I invested in was photography and packaging. Even when Avoca called, they said: ‘We just love your packaging’.”• “I’d encourage any startup to enter awards. It’s a great way to get your name out there.”
Tracey Ryan isn’t afraid to do things her way – including marriage proposals.
“I’m a huge fan of The Cure,” smiles the Bia Beauty entrepreneur. “So when my then boyfriend Gav and I went to see them at Electric Picnic two years ago, I was kind of thinking: ‘Should I ask him to marry me?’, because when we first got together I had warned him never to ask me, because I would not marry anybody.
“But when The Cure played my favourite song, Just Like Heaven, I asked him ... and I got the answer I wanted.”
Likewise, when it comes to Bia Beauty, Tracey has not always been so traditional either.
Set up at her kitchen table shortly after the birth of her son with a €3,000 loan from a friend, the Irish natural skincare company is projecting sales of €500,000 next year. And you can literally smell the sweet success at Bia Beauty’s production unit just outside Cork, where bottles of essential oils and dried flowers with fragrant labels – such as sweet fennel, apple and orange blossom water, calendula and sweet almond – line the shelves like an old-fashioned apothecary.
“I said at the start that if I can’t eat it I’m not putting it in, because your skin absorbs 60% of what you put on it,” says Tracey, twisting the lid off a jar of her best-selling orange and grapefruit cleanser and exfoliator, which smells good enough to scoff. With the exception of a filling machine, all of Bia Beauty’s products are made using traditional methods and infused with nourishing ingredients, from sustainably sourced shea butter from a women’s collective in Ghana, to beeswax from west Cork.
However, Tracey did not become a skincare guru overnight. Having initially embarked on philosophy studies at Trinity College Dublin, she soon switched to arts in Cork, but after a year decided it wasn’t for her.
“I just could not figure out what I wanted to do,” says Tracey, who grew up in Thurles and whose father Martin “Birdie” Ryan was once a professional footballer for Reading.
Her decision to study horticulture at The Organic College in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick, unearthed her love for working with plants. Tracey completed a degree in herbal science at CIT with a view to training as a medical herbalist.
Kitchen table startup
However, the arrival of her son Feidhlim, the summer before her final year, planted the seed for Bia Beauty after she started making simple, natural baby shampoos and nappy creams at her kitchen table. But juggling a new baby, a startup business and college was a challenge.
“Feidhlim was born in July and I went back into my final year at the end of September. Gav used to drive him over in between the breaks so I could breastfeed him and then I’d run back into college,” she recalls.
“But in the middle of it all Bia Beauty came about. I was literally clearing down the kitchen table in the evening and hunting everyone out.”
Having received positive feedback at local markets, Tracey needed modest investment to bring her products to retailers. Daunted by the idea of dealing with the bank, she took up a friend’s offer of a €3,000 loan in November 2011 to bulk-buy ingredients and invest in professional packaging and photography.
“I knew that I had a luxury product, but if I put it inside an amateur little package it wasn’t going to look good and I wasn’t going to be able to charge the proper money for it,” she says.
It obviously paid off. Just after Christmas, she had reimbursed her friend and had the confidence to approach the credit union for a €5,000 loan to invest in further design and a website.
Meanwhile, winning an online competition run by Niall Harbison – a former elite private chef turned entrepreneur – for a €10,000 investment in exchange for a 10% stake in the business, allowed Bia Beauty to say goodbye to the kitchen table and hello to its first premises.
“Niall started his business with €10,000 in a spare bedroom, so he wanted to give a similar business a kickstart,” explains Tracey. (Though, with good grace, Harbison later accepted Bia Beauty’s offer to buy back his stake.)
With the support of a back-to-work allowance and enterprise grants, Tracey officially launched Bia Beauty in September 2012, focusing initially on supplying health stores and pharmacies. A major pinch-me moment was when Avoca rang out of the blue.
“It was incredible to be told: ‘Avoca really wants your product’,” says Tracey, with new additions to its 150-strong stockist list including Lloyds pharmacies, Mothercare online and Blarney Woollen Mills, not to mention website sales as far as the US and Australia.
Indeed, Tracey has received overseas interest from buyers in Germany, Britain and even Asia, and sees export as the next logical step. Having idolised the late Anita Roddick – founder of The Body Shop – Tracey believes Bia Beauty has the potential to carve out a similar niche in ethical skincare internationally.
Sales last year totalled €100,000, she’s on track for €200,000 this year and aiming for €500,000 next year.
“I know brands like Trilogy and Dr Hauschka are there, but there’s no big name saying: ‘These are my ingredients, these are good for you’, so if I could do that with my business, that would be great,” she says.
However, her first ambition is to make Bia Beauty a household name in Ireland. And it’s all hands on deck to achieve that. Literally.
“Gav often comes home stinking of lemon myrtle hand cream,” laughs Tracey.
• “It didn’t come naturally to me to be a salesperson. Even now, if I have to pick up the phone to try to sell something, my first instinct is to do something else. But it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be.”• “The best thing I invested in was photography and packaging. Even when Avoca called, they said: ‘We just love your packaging’.”• “I’d encourage any startup to enter awards. It’s a great way to get your name out there.” 
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