A cosmetics company from Indonesia is helping Muslim women and men feel comfortable using beauty products, especially during religious ceremonies, by integrating Halal certification in all their products.
Like many other global brands, Paragon Corporation, a leading Indonesian cosmetics manufacturer encompassing 11 brands, over 1,400 SKUs, and a staff of more than 12,000, also had a humble beginning, starting in a garage.
In 1985, Nurhayati Subakat, a former pharmacist, with help from her chemical engineer husband, Subakat Hadi, introduced the hair shampoo brand ‘Putri’ to the Indonesian market. She marketed the products door-to-door but soon shifted to focus only on hair salons where her products were better appreciated.
Corporation
After five years of hard work, Nurhayati and her family were the victims of a fire, which burned her whole house and destroyed her production plant.
“Nothing was left, except the teachings of Allah, which was written in the Quran, ‘So, surely with hardship comes ease.’” Nurhayati shared.
The words helped her and her family to rebuild, while the open mindset led Nurhayati to see the potential of the cosmetics market. Being a devout Muslim also made Nurhayati decide she wanted to make sure all her products were Halal-certified.
“Sometimes lard is used as an ingredient in cosmetics,” Nurhayati shared. With Indonesia being a predominantly Muslim country, she said “I wanted Muslims to feel safe to use cosmetics.”
Standing firmly in her vision, Nurhayati launched Wardah Cosmetics in 1995, which implemented an integral halal system to guarantee the purity and quality of its products for the Muslim population, from sourcing to delivery to consumers.
“We needed to apply the halal philosophy truly to our ways of working, not only as branding or symbolism, because it is the best guidance given to us,” Nurhayati explained
Nevertheless, the new journey wasn’t easy. “Halal cosmetics were not familiar back then,” noted Nurhayati, “we had to build awareness among consumers and also Muslim communities in Indonesia.”
Fortunately, the 2010s saw a boom in the use of hijabs in Indonesia; women modernized the wearing of hijabs while maintaining religious requirements, giving the business a boost.
“We worked with them and luckily we were the only halal cosmetics at the time,” noted Nurhayati.
Greater awareness and positive reinforcement propelled the brand to market leadership in Indonesia’s cosmetics space in 2018, as well as a global market leader for halal cosmetics.
Nurhayati’s group of companies grew during these years to produce a range of personal hygiene, skin care, and perfume products, all while remaining focused on being 100 percent Halal-certified.
On increasing the company’s product line from just a couple of choices to more than 1,400 products, Nurhayati outlined five values she has held dearly and shared with her staff, namely; faith in God, care, humility, grit, and innovation.
With these five values, the company invested heavily in making sure that its staff are well cared for and that innovations are adopted to ensure its products are of the highest quality.
As product development takes extensive time and effort, Dr. Sari, Nurhayati’s daughter, has made sure to secure her mother’s lifelong dedication by registering all the assets involved in her business. Whether it was a trademark, specific claim, packaging, or formulation, all of the company’s property is protected. She was especially motivated after seeing her mother work on developing the brand since she was young and witnessing a fire that took away all their possessions.
“We see IP protection as very important because it's one of our ways of ensuring quality. The IP system protects us from the potential of other parties counterfeiting or imitating us, along with other issues,” Dr. Sari clarified.