From pushcart beginnings to a multimillion-dollar beauty retailer

AS STUDENTS in Temasek Polytechnic, Ben Lin and Eugene Tay never expected that their side hustle as fragrance promoters would lead to a multimillion-dollar beauty business.

The duo started selling fragrances from a pushcart in the polytechnic while studying business information technology, after discovering the industry’s potential during an internship in Shanghai.

The pushcart was an instant success. After graduation, the two decided to venture into beauty distribution.

In 2010, they registered their first company, Neferti, for wholesale trading. Today, Neferti provides omni-channel supply chain management solutions for a wide range of beauty and lifestyle products, from fragrances to skincare and cosmetics.

It is one of three subsidiaries under Henatenn, which the duo set up in 2019 to bring their businesses together. The other two are retailer Novela and business-to-business distributor DTB Distribution.

The group thus boasts an entire “beauty ecosystem” of products and services, from distribution to premium retailing and marketing expansion solutions.

Meeting the Covid challenge

Soon after Henatenn Holdings was set up, however, the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

The company was forced to close its physical retail stores during Singapore’s “circuit breaker” period in mid-2020.

In response, the company accelerated its planned move to e-commerce. In under four weeks, an e-commerce website was launched.

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Going beyond aesthetics into specialised medical care

The group partnered major e-commerce platforms from China, such as Tmall Global and Kaola.com.

This proved to be a winning formula, allowing Henatenn to break into China’s beauty industry.

Said chief administrative officer Ben Lin: “Tough environments do not last, tough people do.”

In 2022, the group achieved a turnover of some S$200 million.

Specialised arms

The group opened its first physical retail store under the Novela brand in 2014. Today, it has seven Novela stores.

Its newest store, which opened last April in Tampines 1, introduced a “Scented Journals” collection of niche European fragrances – underscoring Henatenn’s commitment to offering diverse beauty products from around the world.

While the company does bring in products from foreign players, it is committed to supporting local entrepreneurs and innovators in both its physical and online stores.

Co-founder Tay said: “When we talk about beauty, people usually talk about Korean or even European brands, not Singaporean brands. As a home-grown player ourselves, we want to help Singaporean brands expand their opportunities through our retail and overseas reach.”

Separately, in 2018, the co-founders set up business-to-business arm DTB Distribution, riding on the company’s robust supply chain model.

DTB Distribution provides market expansion solutions, from market research, digital strategy and consumer engagement to e-commerce and marketplace management.

Henatenn’s management believes that technological innovation plays a crucial role in continued success. The company embraced automation and smart logistics to enhance productivity and efficiency, particularly post-pandemic.

Previously, it relied mostly on workers to manually transfer cartons of merchandise throughout its facilities, a process which was laborious and tedious.

Today, manual box handling is no longer necessary, with efficient and mechanised storage and retrieval systems.

At Henatenn’s automated warehouse in Penjuru Lane, which went live in April 2023, smart robots navigate effortlessly through the space, moving products from one spot to another. Such technology use is what enables Henatenn to handle over three million products annually.

This series is part of the Enterprise 50 Educational Project between the E50 partners and the NUS Business School. Henatenn Holdings was among the winners in 2023. The annual E50 ranking is co-organised by The Business Times and KPMG, sponsored by OCBC Bank, and supported by Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Exchange and Singapore Business Federation.