We are turning 3! A huge reason to celebrate, not only for the whole JUNGLÜCK team, but especially for our founder Benedikt. I would like to take this opportunity to look back with him on the past few years: To the beginnings, the milestones and how Benedikt has managed to found a company that operates sustainably and has stuck to its core values as it has grown in recent years: Honesty, sustainability, social responsibility.
- The idea: The foundation stone of JUNGLÜCK
- Looking back: Our milestones
- The team
- The product family
- The core values
- The hurdles for sustainable start-ups: profitability vs. sustainability
- Looking ahead: what's next?
1. the idea: the cornerstone of JUNGLÜCK
"If someone had told me three years ago that we would be where we are today, I would probably have called them crazy." If you've been following our journey, you may know how the idea for JUNGLÜCK came about in Benedikt's head in the first place. If not, here's a quick digression: Benedikt realized through conversations with his wife and mom that good and natural cosmetics are hard to identify and get. On the one hand, he wanted to give something back to the two most important women in his life, and on the other, he saw a great opportunity to help many other people with his own cosmetics brand by manufacturing his products with high standards of quality and sustainability right from the start. Looking back, it's hard to believe what it has become and how many people start and finish every day with our cosmetics. This makes not only Benedikt, but everyone here at JUNGLÜCK pretty happy!
2. review: Our milestones
A lot has happened at our company over the past 3 years, much of it behind the scenes. But that's exactly where I'd like to take you for a little insight!
The team
From 1 to 45 in 3 years, despite the pandemic. From Benedikt's desk at home, to a small one-room office, to our beautiful, green loft office in the south of Munich. Gradually, more and more people have joined us, driven JUNGLÜCK forward and actively lent a hand everywhere to get to where we are today. And even further, of course! The shift to working from home last year didn't stop us!
Unlike many other start-ups, we were lucky last year because our online store wasn't so negatively affected by the pandemic. The coronavirus-related difficulties that we had to overcome and the problems that we had to find solutions for and learn from consisted largely of delays at our suppliers, which also led to shipping delays for us. Like the majority of people, we have had to get used to only seeing our colleagues and friends via the laptop screen from the home office and new employees have still not seen the faces of our team in person. Despite all this "alienation", we have grown together more and more, we still have the team spirit from day one and can hardly wait to be back in the office kitchen together again and get to know each other properly!
The product family
Our little family has now grown from 3 products to 49 members. And one thing still takes center stage: the high quality of the ingredients. A highlight of the last year for Benedikt was definitely the launch of our baby care range - because he himself became a dad at the start of product development! So it's no wonder that he wanted to develop care products for his little son, as he had already done for his wife and mother, that he could use on his baby's skin with a clear conscience.
The core values
Sustainability
The fact that we prioritize the environment in our product sourcing, packaging and general decisions is something you probably noticed the first time you looked at our website. Benedikt puts it in a nutshell: "For us, sustainability essentially means that we always have a strong focus on sustainability in every decision we make and do not do things if they go against our principles, even if they would make economic sense." The best example is probably that JUNGLÜCK is still an owner-managed company. We are not backed by investors, we are backed by our founder. For start-ups of our size, and especially in the sustainable sector, this is something quite special that gives us much more freedom to act. Investors often have their own plans for their investment, they have no personal ties to the company and its employees, which is why it is often difficult to make particularly social or sustainable decisions that may be less profitable for the company from a purely economic perspective. However, this is extremely important to us, as we want to give something back for everything we do and the success we have with it. For us, this is the way to move JUNGLÜCK forward - not at the expense of our own values.
Social responsibility
When we look at the development of our major fundraising campaigns, we are extremely excited about what we can still achieve if we continue to grow!
- Eden Reforestation Project in the mangroves of Madagascar: We have already planted over a million trees and with every product sold, another one is added!
- Brotzeit e.V.: The VAT reduction in 2020 benefited this special Munich organization. Children were able to receive school meals for a whole year!
- Happiness WeekOur biggest fundraising initiative to date last November. 7 organizations, 7 campaigns and 7 donations. We are already looking forward to the next Happiness Week!
- Over €180,000 went to social projects in 2020 alone.
- Building a school in Malawi - Benedikt's special project of the heart: building an entire school in one of the poorest regions of Malawi together with the abc society. Because education offers a promising future.
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Our first big campaign: With the exclusively designed shirt for International Women's Day 2021, we were able to donate €19,320 to Frauenhilfe München gGmbH.
Honesty
During our conversation, I asked Benedikt what he would like to see in the future: "It would be great if in the future we could make a contribution to ensuring that there are more and more people who have acquired their own knowledge about good skincare and we could help them with this."
That is our mission, which we have been working on from day 1: To bring you well-founded information on skin and hair, but also knowledge on topics such as holistic health and our products in a completely honest and transparent way. To do this, we regularly bring in experts such as our midwife Anna-Maria, our skincare expert Michael, dermatologists and doctors. We welcome any feedback and topics of interest that we receive from our community.
But honesty doesn't stop at our role as an advisor. We also want to give you insights into our everyday office life, our production and product development and even give you the chance to actively participate. That's why we recently launched the customer panel initiative "JUNGLÜCK asks you" to get even closer to your wishes and opinions.
3. the hurdles for sustainable start-ups: profitability vs. sustainability
It's not that easy to set up or run a sustainable business, even in 2021, so I wanted to know from Benedikt what compromises he has had to make, or has to make, when it comes to sustainability and profitability? Especially for a company that is focused on sustainable business?
"For us, sustainable business means that every decision we make has a strong focus on sustainability. Nevertheless, some decisions cannot always be implemented with the greatest sustainability. The best example of this is the glass packaging we use. The majority of all cosmetic products are packaged in plastic. Glass is a must for us, which is why it was a huge challenge, especially in the beginning. Unfortunately, this is due to the overall system of the cosmetics industry, in which plastic is the number one packaging method. As a smaller company, large suppliers are out of the question. If you ask for a more sustainable closure, you get a refusal. It seems that there is so much satisfaction and so little willingness to innovate in this industry. However, once a company reaches a certain size, some things are easier to achieve, such as being able to buy glass bottles directly from the glassworks."
The larger the company, the greater the opportunities for sustainability. We want to continue to pursue our sustainability goals as strongly as we can at every stage and use our freedom of action to implement our core values and remain true to them and, above all, to you as a customer.
4 Looking ahead: What's next?
One thing is certain: we have some pretty exciting product launches in the pipeline for this year (and next)! However, they are currently still in the internal product development phase and unfortunately we can't reveal anything more specific yet. But we can assure you of one thing: We always base our development on community surveys, i.e. what you want from us. So maybe your dream product will soon be available in a JUNGLÜCK bottle in your bathroom.
But what exactly does Benedikt want for the future?
"I want to become even more sustainable, with a new product form that is more sustainable in itself, similar to the solid products, which do not require a lot of packaging. We are also currently revising our packaging, so it shouldn't be too long before your order arrives in new shipping packaging. It is important to us all to become even more comprehensible and to incorporate even more customer feedback on our products into development and optimization. In addition to the current school construction in Malawi, I would like to give even more organizations and people the opportunity to fulfill their goals, wishes and projects.
"In 10 years' time, I would love to be seen as a small pioneer for the approach of sustainable and natural cosmetics, with a strong focus on the effect, but also keeping an eye on the aspect of social responsibility and sustainability and being seen as a modern brand with the combination of good products and sustainability."
So you can see that we have big and small dreams and plans for the future. And we will remain true to our core values: Demonstrating sustainability in all areas, taking social responsibility for people and the environment and meeting you with honesty about our products, the JUNGLÜCK philosophy and topics such as skincare and holistic health.
With this in mind: Celebrate with us and enjoy 3 years of JUNGLÜCK and 20% discount* with the code HAPPY3
