Microbiologist Alain Ménard and his wife, biochemist Karen Clark, started Green Beaver out of the family’s kitchen in 2002. The Ontario-based brand has grown rapidly ever since, with its toothpastes and aluminum-free deodorants easily recognizable in roughly 3,000 pharmacies, grocers and health stores across Canada by the signature furry critter on their packaging.
But its meteoric growth over the past six weeks is something the company has never seen before.
Sales on its website have increased 400 per cent compared with the same time last year, Mr. Ménard said. “And in retail, we’re up closer to 100 per cent.”
Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump declared a trade war on Canada, shoppers in this country have been vowing to buy Canadian, eat Canadian and even drive Canadian (as much as possible). And while the impact of the “Buy Canadian” movement has been significant for many homegrown businesses, personal care brands are among those reaping some of the biggest benefits, according to Pierre Cléroux, vice-president of research and chief economist at the Business Development Bank of Canada.
Conversations he’s had with business owners in the personal care space suggest that, for many, traditionally the “only competition is coming from outside the country.”
But with more shoppers now turning to Canadian goods, that external competition has been curtailed.
American goods in particular make up 71 per cent of Canada’s imports in the personal care category, according to Trade Data Monitor, so the push to buy Canadian for goods such as toothpaste, lotion and makeup eliminates many rival American-based brands such as Revlon and Estée Lauder.
Countertariffs present challenges for some Canadian brands sourcing material from the U.S., but others have seen a boost.
Green Beaver, which sources core ingredients such as Labrador tea from Quebec and pine essential oil from across Canada, needed to hire three people in the past four weeks alone to keep up with demand.
Smaller personal care businesses have seen their sales soar as well. Business has tripled in the past month for Cheekbone Beauty, an Indigenous-owned brand that makes its lipsticks, mascaras, powders and other products in Canada and Italy, company founder Jenn Harper said.
In 2021, the brand became the first Indigenous-owned company to sell its products at cosmetics retail giant Sephora, owned by French multinational LVMH. But Ms. Harper said the company still generates most sales through its own website.
And traffic there has surged – from 1,000 daily visitors to between 3,000 and 4,000 in the weeks since Mr. Trump’s rhetoric around Canada becoming the “51st state” began in January.
Many of the new visitors are people who seem totally unacquainted with the brand and want to learn more, as opposed to customers looking for a specific product, Ms. Harper said.
“We’ve had more hits on the ‘about’ page than we’ve ever seen before. A lot of the beauty consumers quite possibly didn’t know about our brand because we’re so small.”
Getting those potential new customers to “add to cart” is a lucrative opportunity. The brand’s customer return rate is between 55 and 65 per cent for many of its products, including eyeshadow pencils, “mattifying moon dust” and mascara.
To capture the growing curiosity, Ms. Harper’s workforce, which totals around 25 people, created bundles that let shoppers try out a variety of products in one purchase – and which can help build brand loyalty.
“We know that this community just doesn’t even know about us yet. We’re literally just scratching the surface,” Ms. Harper said.
Both Cheekbone Beauty and Green Beaver also sell in the United States. Mr. Ménard said that U.S. sales of Green Beaver products grew 20 per cent in the past few months, a potential sign that some Americans, at least, are supporting Canada in the trade war and “going out of their way” to buy their products.
But both companies are also pulling away from American retailers to some extent.
Green Beaver had already been planning to cut back on selling its products through Amazon, partly because of high fees and small margins, Mr. Ménard said. Concerns around profits flowing out of Canada provided the final push.
“You’re just sending all the profitability to the Amazon headquarters into the States. ... I’d rather just keep it here,” he said.
Cheekbone Beauty is also shifting its attention to the national market. “We ultimately halted any efforts that we have to focus on the U.S.,” Ms. Harper said. “There’s so much opportunity in Canada.”
