Editors' Top Reads: News from Lush, THG, The Perfume Shop and more...

Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.beauty team.

Plastic Free July: 5 beauty brands championing sustainable packaging innovation

Perhaps unsurprisingly, packaging is still one of the biggest sustainability challenges facing the beauty industry. In fact, the global cosmetics market produces 120 billion units of packaging every year, according to recycling company TerraCycle. This figure is hard to fathom, especially when so little is recycled and much of it ends up in landfills. Therefore, sustainable packaging solutions are crucial and thankfully there are a number of beauty businesses championing innovation in this space.

From bio-based packaging by Haeckels, Wild and Daye to innovative sampling solutions by Elemis and AKT London, TheIndustry.beauty spotlights five brands championing packaging innovation and what you can learn from them, not just this Plastic Free July but all year round.

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer. 

THG to make fresh job cuts as it orders staff back to the office

Beauty and nutrition retail giant THG has said its staff must attend the office five days a week and at the same time has announced a raft of job cuts – some 171 jobs are to go. The parent of Cult Beauty and Lookfantastic, among others, began encouraging staff to return to the office more frequently last year but uptake has been "inconsistent". Now, unless they have a pre-agreed flexible working arrangement, they will have to return to the office five days a week from 19 August.

It isn't the first brand to demand more presence from its staff. Head office staff at Boots have been told they too must be in the office five days a week from 1 September. Like THG, Boots said that remote working had negatively impacted its company culture.

In making its return to office demand at the same time as a round of job cuts, no doubt THG will be expecting uptake to be more consistent this time around.

Will the permanent presence in the office of its staff make a difference at THG? Will we see a marked improvement in its financial performance as a result? At this stage, we don't know, but I can't help feeling that in this day and age the demand for a full five-day presence could be counter-productive and may prevent them from attracting the best talent moving forward. We'll see and I am also certain we'll see more businesses making similar demands of their staff moving forward.

Lauretta Roberts, CEO, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief.

Forget groceries, The Perfume Shop's fragrances are coming to Deliveroo

Omnichannel operations are something that we see becoming increasingly important to beauty and fashion businesses. Traditionally, we think of brick-and-mortar and e-commerce when it comes to retail, but Deliveroo's Shopping platform has opened up a new way for beauty businesses to reach their customers.

New Deliveroo data reveals searches in the app for perfume have increased over 300% year-on-year, showcasing growing interest from Deliveroo customers for fragrances to be delivered on demand. The Perfume Shop jumped at this opportunity by joining Deliveroo Shopping. Over 1,000 fragrances will be available to shop via Deliveroo across London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The collaboration will bring The Perfume Shop’s extensive perfume range and cosmetic products directly to customers’ doors in as little as 25 minutes. It will launch "in the coming months" and will initially be available from 21 stores.

Chloé Burney, Senior News & Features Writer.

In Pictures: Lush opens new Perfume Library concept in London's Soho

Fragrance is likely not the first product that springs to mind when thinking about Lush - I imagine it will be bath bombs. However, it certainly is a category that Lush has turned its focus too recently, having opened a new Perfume Library concept in London's Soho.

Located at 67-71 Beak Street, the new concept allows customers to explore an exclusive selection of 12 new perfumes, not yet available anywhere else. The space also offers a collection of home fragrances, including candles, wax melts and incense, as well as a limited amount of new body sprays for customers to discover before their official launch. Curated alongside the perfumes are a selection of fragrance-inspired books, also available to purchase.

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.