The Interview: Weleda UK boss Jayn Sterland on 100 years of Skin Food, growth and sustainable beauty

Weleda has built a global reputation for its commitment to people, planet and high-quality, plant-based products since its founding in 1921.

Few people have witnessed the brand’s recent evolution as closely as Jayn Sterland, who joined the business in the mid-2000s after a visit to Weleda’s gardens sparked a lasting connection with its regenerative approach.

Since then, Sterland has played a pivotal role in expanding Weleda’s presence, championing Skin Food and helping to bring the heritage brand to new audiences and cultural moments.

As Weleda Skin Food celebrates its centenary in 2026, we talk to Sterland about the brand’s journey, the challenges of building a genuinely sustainable beauty business, the enduring appeal of Skin Food, and what the future holds for natural beauty.

You joined Weleda in the mid-2000s - what initially attracted you to the brand and what has your journey there been like?

I had been working in the fashion clothing sector when I was lucky enough to visit the Weleda gardens on an Open Day, and it opened my eyes to how a company could (and should) operate. I remember very clearly thinking how wonderful it would be to work for a regenerative brand that took sustainability seriously. This was over twenty years ago, and things were very different then, with very few brands thinking, let alone acting, in this way.

I was fortunate to join the brand a few years later, and what I found at Weleda was a company where thinking ‘planet-first’ is written into its DNA, from the way we farm our plants, how we partner with both our suppliers and our customers, through to how we are, first and foremost, a people-centric company where every person is recognised as a unique individual. This is so rare and I guess it’s what keeps me here - I just love who we are, what we do and, most importantly, how we do it!

How have you seen the brand develop during this time?

Back in the mid-2000s, whilst Weleda was a household name within our home markets of Germany and Switzerland, we had only a very small presence in the rest of the world. Now, thanks to consistent double-digit annual growth, Weleda today is recognised as the No. 1 global brand for certified natural cosmetics and natural pharmaceuticals, because of our outstanding baby care, our toothpastes, our face and body care, and of course thanks to the phenomenal sales of Skin Food, which is almost as famous as Weleda itself.

What key milestones are you most proud of?

Over the years there have been so many standout moments it’s hard to pinpoint just a handful, but I’ll try! Celebrities name-checking Weleda organically is always so rewarding, as it means they genuinely love the product - fifteen years ago, Victoria Beckham tweeted about how much she loved Skin Food just as she was buying it in Whole Foods Market, and she has gone on to name-check us on a regular basis. Similarly, Simon Cowell spontaneously raved about our Citrus Bath Milk on US television, as did Drew Barrymore (with Skin Food!). Recently, Bella Hadid has posted about buying eight tubes of Skin Food a month! You cannot buy this kind of love.

For me, most rewarding is seeing our ‘rate of sale’, which is four times the industry standard - I just love this because it means people genuinely love our products and we know from research that 99% of consumers repeat purchase - again, another industry record-breaker.

In the UK, Weleda recently opened its new logistics centre in Derbyshire, also housing Weleda's customer care team. The new facility, which totals 23,793 sq ft, has capacity to store over 4.75 million stock items and handle over 75,000 dispatches a year, delivering to Weleda's retailers nationwide as well as online orders for consumers around the UK. The facility also processes orders for all UK-manufactured products to other Weleda companies and distributors around the world, from the USA and Europe to Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The new offices and warehouse have enabled Weleda to improve sustainability and efficiency, whilst providing bright and modern new working environments for staff. This year, Weleda's established UK pharmaceutical manufacturing business is being relocated to the new state-of-the-art facility.

Have there been any challenges along the way - how have you navigated and overcome them?

Being a totally natural brand has many disadvantages; it isn’t easy being so ‘green'...

One year, after a particularly dramatic hard winter across Europe, the majority of chamomile crops were wiped out and that year we almost ran out of ingredients for Skin Food! We have learnt to farm more sustainably now by growing two crops a year - one in the global north and a second in the global south. We also develop our own farming networks, by working with small farmers through the establishment of collectives globally. This means we have multiple small-scale projects all supplying our key ingredients and we are no longer reliant upon one supplier or farmers from one region.

After securing a stable supply of high-quality plant ingredients, our second biggest challenge is that of packaging, important as it is also our products’ preservative system (we don’t use synthetic preservatives). As we use primarily glass bottles and aluminium tubes, this can be tricky to get the pharmaceutical quality we need. For a while we switched to recycled PET plastic tubes, as independent analysis showed that they had a lower environmental impact than using virgin aluminium, whilst we worked on developing a cosmetics-grade recycled aluminium tube, which is better again in sustainable terms.

Packaging for all cosmetics is tricky as the majority of products are liquid and this needs packaging that will stop oxidation for up to four years on the shelf in store, and packaging which will be fully recyclable anywhere in the world, is made from 100% recycled materials, and which will not interfere or contaminate the product itself! This is ‘the’ challenge the whole industry faces.

You played a key role in expanding the brand’s reach and introducing Skin Food to a much wider audience. Can you tell us about that journey and why you think the product resonates with consumers?

When I arrived at Weleda, I wanted to focus our activity across a few products in our wide range. We made hundreds and it was almost impossible to actively market them all with a tiny team and even smaller budgets! I loved the fact it represented our heritage, having been formulated in 1926. It was made from five simple, organic, traditional herbal extracts, very Weleda; it was ubiquitous and democratic; it smelt amazing; and above all else it worked - it fixed my dry, sensitive, temperamental skin in days of trying it. I was sold. But interestingly, the company was quite resistant at first as the product had been around for so long. I think it helped to have an outsider view and once we had sales lift-off in the UK, it quickly became our biggest-selling product and range globally because it works. It’s as simple as that. If you have dry, dehydrated or problem skin, Skin Food is literally food for your skin, in a tube.

Weleda is widely recognised as a pioneer in natural, ethical and sustainable beauty - why have these values remained so important to the brand?

Sustainability has been at the heart of Weleda for more than 100 years. Nature, planet and people were the inspiration behind the company’s founding in 1921, and that commitment continues to guide the business today. At Weleda, sustainability is not an added initiative; it is embedded in our DNA and even reflected in the company’s Articles of Association: “The Company shall have a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole, through its business and operations.”

From the outset, Weleda has been committed to creating products that are both effective and responsible, shaped by the belief that business should work in harmony with nature and the human being. Decisions are guided not only by cost and performance, but also by long-term impact, resource responsibility and remaining true to the brand’s values.

This can be seen across the business - from growing its own plants and manufacturing its products, to building one of Europe’s most sustainable warehouses and fostering long-standing partnerships with small farming communities. Today, Weleda is further strengthening this approach by embedding sustainability even more deeply into governance and business steering, helping to track progress, inform decision-making and ensure sustainability remains integrated across the organisation.

Beyond your role at Weleda, you’ve also been involved with NATRUE and British Beauty Council. How does your work with these organisations help drive positive change across the wider beauty industry?

Our industry struggles with systemic change and what this means is that we have to find ways in which brands can work together to problem-solve - becoming part of the solution and not being the problem. But the issues to fix are big, expensive and not straightforward, which is why industry collectives are essential in first identifying the problems (toxic ingredients, irresponsible use of scarce materials including water, unsustainable business practices, child labour, the use of plastics, biased and unfounded marketing claims, etc.), then agreeing to collaborate and change well-established practices together.

I work closely with NATRUE - the global natural cosmetics certification body which oversees and lobbies for regulatory and industry change. What’s important about NATRUE is that it was founded by the industry, with leading European organic cosmetic brands agreeing to raise standards and to work with the European Commission on legally protecting the rights of the consumer. It’s a perfect example of the industry coming together to make positive changes in the interest of the consumer and of the planet.

Weleda Skin Food is celebrating its centenary - how is the brand marking this milestone year?

2026 is turning into our most successful year ever, thanks in part to the wonderful brands we have been able to partner with - namely taking Weleda Skin Food to Paris, where we created our famous Skin Food Glow Studio backstage at the Stella McCartney catwalk shows, through to our debut as skincare sponsor at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May - the reaction to which was incredible!

We are so excited to be working with the amazing industry influencer and ‘Glow-Up Queen’, make-up artist Val Garland on a super-secret campaign launching this September, and we are currently planning for next year with a campaign that might surprise the industry!

What I love about Skin Food are the opportunities to link the product into key cultural moments with and through our industry heroes, the make-up artists.

What does reaching 100 years mean to you and what do you think it represents for the brand?

Reaching 100 years is an incredible feat for any company. For us at Weleda, it represents a century of staying true to our values - caring for people and planet, championing natural beauty, and proving that responsible business can stand the test of time. For the brand, it reflects both heritage and progress: preserving the integrity of much-loved products like Skin Food, while continuing to innovate with new additions to the range, vegan options, sustainable packaging, fair trade and regenerative farming, and our ongoing commitment as a B Corp. It’s a moment to celebrate where we’ve come from, but also to look ahead to how we continue evolving for the future without compromising what Weleda stands for.

Are there any trends, sustainable innovations and/or consumer behaviours that might influence this?

Over the past twenty years, the natural and organic cosmetics sector has become the key driver of growth in cosmetics globally. This has been driven by a demand for ‘cleaner beauty’, a real concern about ‘chemical nasties’ such as forever chemicals, or some of the preservatives, artificial additives, harsh detergents and potential allergens which are found in some skincare. As demand for truly natural products has grown, so has the number of brands competing, and with this, greenwashing - where conventional brands purport to be natural with ‘organic’ even within their brand name (they often aren’t!) and claims such as 96% natural (which isn’t the same as genuinely natural).

Research tells us our latest generation of consumers, so-called Gen Z, assume all skincare is natural and sustainable, becoming ubiquitous and expected, as is performance. For Weleda, whilst this means we will of course continue to produce truly natural, certified skincare, we are additionally focussing on clinically proven skincare claims that are more efficacious than conventional brands. For example, within our facial skincare we are using 100% naturally derived active ingredients like Astaxanthin, which is one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants, and through our soon-to-be-launched “Cell Longevity” line we are using powerful NAD+ and exosome technology to deliver outstanding skincare results.