The Interview: Brendan Murdock of anatomē on building a brand and achieving balance

Brendan Murdock is the founder of modern apothecary anatomē. A serial entrepreneur and a pioneer in the wellness space, Murdock has built a brand on the cornerstone of achieving balance and restful sleep. A discerning clientele, including leading creatives and elite athletes, turn to anatomē's sleep oil and supplements to achieve equilibrium in their busy lives.

Murdock has just added a new mood-enhancing fragrance range and a skincare line (featuring skin oil, cleanser, toner and moisturiser) to the anatomē product line-up, which work in concert with he wellness products. These are available at the anatomē store in London's upscale Chiltern Street, as well as online and via partners, such as Selfridges, Healf and John Lewis. International expansion is underway with a major partner in Australia and this year it has also launched in the UAE and China. Next destination in Murdock's sights is the US.

Closer to home, however, anatomē is staging a greenhouse-themed pop-up in Battersea Power Station to enable more shoppers to experience anatomē's unique creations in the lead-up to Christmas.

Murdock chats to us about his entrepreneurial journey, his approach to developing products, his plans for the development of the brand and how he achieves balance in his own life.

Can you please tell us a bit about your career background before founding anatomē? Your career began in a very different realm from the one you have ended up in.

My journey to creating anatomē has been quite interesting and has led me to where I am today. I began my career in law and then transitioned into sports management, where I looked after sportsmen. However, my actual career began when I opened a restaurant called CRU in London's Shoreditch, it was a wine-focused warehouse restaurant where we showcased unusual wines alongside rustic Mediterranean-inspired dishes and during an exciting time in London, early 2000s, the rebirth of Shoreditch so we had people coming for dinner from places as far as Notting Hill, I jest but in all seriousness it was the birthplace of fads, fashions a new LGBT community and was a dynamic time.  Running a restaurant is challenging, though, and whilst running it, it was. While exploring and discovering pharmacies of old Mayfair men's grooming establishments, I wondered how we could modernise these palaces for self-care.

I eventually decided on men's grooming, growing the brand I created, Murdock London, across London and internationally, it was important for me to create a space that spoke to different constituencies of men from the trust of the barber chair and at that time the business was underpinned by a very strong cologne, gifting and skincare business. After leaving Murdock behind, I began to revisit the concept of a pharmacy, which led to the development of anatomē,  I loved places in Florence  and Vienna, the old-fashioned apothecaries of immense tradition and I could bring that to anatomē.

When did the keen interest in botanicals and equilibrium begin? As with Murdock London, you seem to be driven by a greater purpose than just producing products that are pleasant to use.

I understand the power of scent and the use of botanical extracts throughout history to impact wellbeing; we've even written the anatomē book to anchor this that came out this year the moren apothecary. So when developing a perfume, a lot of time is focused on the origin of the ingredients, the growing conditions, the climate, and the topography. It is this focus that delivers the quality and beauty of each scent. I understand that we should wear scent not just for its aesthetic appeal, but for why it finds itself in our world – for example, lavender to help relax, spices to stimulate, and sea moss and sea salt to bring calmness.

Tell us about the anatomē philosophy and approach as you saw it in the beginning, and what did the brand look like at the very start?

Like anything, the brand has evolved. When I first launched, the brand mainly offered oils in dropper bottles daily and night. Since then, the brand and collections have been refined, and over the last year, we have repositioned the brand in a new way. We are building this conversation around the transformative power of botanicals to support your well-being from an emotional and physical perspective underpinned by the science of scent, and aromachology at the forefront.

As a brand have established a strong foundation in sleep, which has been a cornerstone of the brand. In 2022, we withdrew our day oils from the market and reformulated and focused on creating our sleep oils, which now define a new sleep collection category that extends in to bath time and bedside rituals that we are very proud of. Additionally, we have refined the supplement collection to include 7 formulations in total, all combining extracts to support our well-being. We also plan to develop the bath, body, and skincare categories further over the next year so that the brand can be clearly defined as an apothecary. Our perfumes are truly exciting and 2 years in the making, and with 6 in the initial collection, they are just wonderful.

You were one of the pioneers of the wellness movement (which is booming now); when you first started out, did it take a while for people to appreciate what you were trying to achieve?

I think we did launch at an exciting time, just before COVID-19, and it has been an interesting development and challenging in the marketplace. Some aspects clearly have worked well. I believe we make the best oil and perfume formulations in the world, the parfums reflect how the customer lives, using spent in the spray from as they travel, our main focus is scent perfumes, sleep oils and skincare.

anatome's products are focused on wellness and equilibrium

Talk us through the anatomē product line-up and which are the best sellers?

Our best sellers are perfume and sleep oil. Our perfume is unique, as it harnesses extracts from the sea to emotionally transport you to a place of calm and collectiveness.

Expression is a favourite of mine and the customers in the perfume collection. It transports you to the coast of Comporta or Cap Ferret; places I feel at ease, where the crashing waves of the Atlantic and the positive ions that they release help you feel calm and centred.

Our sensory sleep oils are of course hero products, as they significantly improve people's sleep quality. We have a strong base of returning customers who are eager to sleep better and better, and what is important is that it is transformative; we have such happy, valued customers who come back to the store in Marylebone to share with us the news they have sleep better.

Sleep is obviously a a big focus for you, tell us why you decided to address that area and was that something you personally struggled with?

I did struggle with sleep, but in all honesty, when I created anatomē, that was not the expectation when I started, I was looking broadly at scent's ability to impact our well-being and the future of scent; there is a shift away from the 20th century pure aesthetic scent, consumers want more than just smelling good, it has to have an impact, and Aromachology is the science of how scents impact human behaviour. It is the repetitive use of scent structure that impacts our behaviour, including sleep, that makes us feel at ease, so we have an education program developed to support this category.

The supplements range is very comprehensive how did you go about developing those and what sets yours apart?

We are focusing on compounds, we do not want you taking 5/6 different single supplements a day and we focus on problem solution. So best, selling supplements are our sleep supplement, our gut support, and our menu support, three categories where we can make a difference to your well-being and this all dovetails back into sleep and emotional wellbeing, key pillars to the brand. We mainly focus this in the UK market.

You’ve recently added to the line-up with a series of wellbeing perfumes, which can be used in partnership with your other products. Can you please tell us about those and how they have been received?

Truly amazing – the anatomē perfumes – I'm so, so pleased and it's transforming our business. The anatomē perfumes took many years to create. Each formulation consisted of 17-30 different olfactory botanicals in each composition; we went through 100s of variants to reach a finished collection. We have used energising extracts such as orange flower, neroli, cardamom, and ginger and anchoring extracts like rose, petitgrain, sea moss, oak moss, and cypress to support breathwork.

Focus is enriched with stimulating extracts, Energy has citrus notes to create bursts of activity, Expression has extracts from the sea to support breath work and relaxation, Balance is used to as an anchor in moments of anxiety, and Order is a blank canvas to empty the brain of thoughts to prepare for the task ahead.

The other day, a violinist told me she is using Expression in her rehearsals to centre and anchor her performance, and it is working for her, which was beautiful to hear. Energy was inspried by a rather elegant tennis player; we know he has a love of neroli and fleur d'orange so we created this cut with tobacco to bring out that currency and modernity of our scents. We always cut them with something unexpected.

You have just launches some skincare and you have a some bodycare products. Are there plans to expand that area of the business, too?

This is mainly focused on some core products where essential oils, in combination, can improve the elasticity and tonality of the skin, such as face oil, essential oil cleanser, bath oils and bath salts. Formulations to nurture the skin and help you relax. It's a competitive category, so we keep it relevant to our well-being pillars.

The anatome apothecary in Chiltern Street, London

Who is the anatomē consumer, is there a particular profile you have identified? And how do you go about building relationships with your community?

Mainly age-defiant men and women who are health epicureans, well travelled, extraordinarily taste palates, wellbeing is part of their lives and not a slogan, they enjoy movement, travel, theatre, opera, food and live performance. They work extremely hard and longevity, luxury and quality are very, very important to them. We have alot of discerning actresses, dancers, designers, health experts and sports people on our customer database also.

Can we talk about the business side of anatomē? You have the London apothecary and the website. Are the products available anywhere else, and are there plans to expand your distribution (both in the UK and internationally)?

We have a great partnership with Selfridges and other national retailers and independents in the UK, from Healf to John Lewis. We plan to launch our Parfums on the counter in leading department stores. We are just shipping our collection to Australia to launch with MECCA. We launched in China in the summer and the UAE shortly; America is in our sights, but to do this is with distribution. Online continues to flourish, so we must work harder at the digital experience to get our products to you globally and increase our brand recognition. That is why we also have an amenity program in hotels and also present in gyms and movement spaces.

I will expand with the support of distributors that know the international markets and have those strong relationships we learned now not to try to do too much on our own, we need that level of expertise advising and challenging us.
You’re a brand founder and, therefore someone who is busy and who understands pressure, how do you achieve equilibrium?

Honestly, it was challenging; I found the last few years crucial, focusing on the brand coming out of COVID and making good decisions, however hard they felt at the time. Perfumes and brand design have been part of that. I do love visiting galleries and travelling. I'm an excellent assembler/cook of rustic dishes, and I like running and cycling, so balance is key. I hope to enjoy visiting our partners globally, such as Mecca Australia – that is exciting!