Robin Fritz joins WWP as beauty industry shifts into wellness and self-care

WWP formally announced Robin Friz as the company’s Senior Sales Director of Beauty & Wellness Accessories just this week. But she came onboard with WWP last month.

“We are delighted to have Robin on the team,” ​says Josh Kirschbaum, CEO at WWP in his remarks to the press. “The expansion of our Beauty & Wellness Accessories capabilities is a reflection of our growth as a company and our commitment to offering our clients a one stop, full-service solution for all of their beauty needs,” ​he says.

“We are confident that Robin will service our global client base with future-focused solutions in the Beauty & Wellness Accessories category,” ​adds Kirschbaum.

WWP’s evolution from packaging supplier to full-service beauty maker

In 2018, Boston, Massachusetts – based Bain Capital acquired World Wide Packaging (WWP). At that same time the private investment firm acquired beauty packing facility in Suzhou, China. Bain has since merged the two businesses and is serving both China-based companies and multinational cosmetics and personal care companies doing business in that country.

In April of 2018, when those deals were announced, Jonathan Zhu, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity, told the press, “With this deal, the combined entity will have a customer-facing function primarily in the US, and manufacturing, sales and marketing operations in China.” ​

Outlining plans for the company’s future, Zhu added, “We look forward to working with World Wide Packaging to preserve and enhance its presence in the independent beauty market and grow its presence among large beauty players, in the US and beyond, particularly in China, where demand for cosmetics is growing three times as fast as the US.”​

Since Bain took over WWP, the company has been strategically growing through acquisitions of companies such as Design Quest and the Cosmetic Design group. And now the company is rebranding to become WWP Beauty in the New Year.  

A pop-up window on the current company splash-page explains, “Our new website and rebrand to WWP Beauty is underway. We will be back in the New Year, with a new look and feel that is committed to delivering service in partnership, future-focused agility and global scale.” ​And the new company tag line, “The source for everything beauty.” ​Is also quite plain on the page.

As beauty expands into wellness and self-care categories so too does WWP

Led by indie brands’ response to consumer expectations, the cosmetic, personal care, and fragrance industries have been blurring the lines between beauty and wellness and sleep care and other lifestyle sectors. WWP’s decision to hire Robin Friz as the company’s Senior Sales Director of Beauty & Wellness Accessories is a sign that this is not a short-term trend.

In this week’s announcement about Friz’s new role, the company explains that “Robin will be expanding the company’s current offering of creative beauty and wellness accessory solutions to meet the growing demand for self-care tools, skincare accessories (jade rollers, micro-needling tools), sleep essentials (sleep masks, satin scrunchies) as well as cosmetics accessories (brushes, makeup bags) with a focus on sustainability.​

And the new company category won’t operate in isolation: “Robin will work cross-functionally with the WWP Beauty packaging and formulation teams to align innovations,” ​notes the release.