Grown Alchemist CEO Anna Teal exits to launch new wellness brand

Grown Alchemist Global CEO, Anna Teal, is stepping down after three years in the role as she prepares to launch a new wellness brand, "AFIMA".

In a post on LinkedIn, she reflected on her time at the company, which was taken private two years ago when André Hoffmann acquired a majority stake, with Teal a minority shareholder. The brand had previously been owned by L'Occitane Group.

"Grown Alchemist is in a much stronger and clearer place today, with a great product pipeline, incredible partnerships coming, and expanding distribution. With the ownership transfer process largely complete, it felt like a natural moment to move on," she later told TheIndustry.beauty.

"It is not easy to leave a brand and a team you genuinely love. But it also felt like the right time to focus on AFIMA and on what I want this next chapter to look like. At a certain point, if the conviction is strong enough, you have to back yourself."

Teal said she will focus on The Growth Advisory, advising founders, operators and investors on growth, brand, strategy and scale.

She is also building AFIMA, a modern wellness brand she describes as "still early, but rooted in a white space I care deeply about".

"There is a lot I am deliberately not saying yet, simply because I do not want to steal the brand's thunder before the right moment. What I can say is that AFIMA is being built around performance, ease and a much more modern consumer experience. The bar I have set is very high, both in terms of how the product performs and how it fits into real life," revealed Teal.

"The ambition is to launch later this year, but only if the product is exactly where I want it to be. I am not interested in putting something into the market before it is truly ready. It has to be right."

While details remain under wraps, she appears to be capitalising on the growing wellness market, which is estimated to be worth $6.3 trillion, according to the Global Wellness Institute.

Additionally, Teal plans to launch Beautiful Hustle, a Substack covering beauty, wellness, business and "the realities of building something of your own".