Natural Bodycare, a 22-year-old company that manufacturers and distributes some 30 products for the home, bath, hair care and skin care market places, has relocated its operations from California to Poulsbo.

Two area entrepreneurs — Michael Weiss of Poulsbo and Rob Barnes of Shelton — bought the company last year and the pair decided to move it closer to home.

Weiss contacted the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council following the purchase and with that agency’s assistance eventually ended up locating the business to the Twelve Trees Business Park, just north of Poulsbo. The company has leased 4,000 square feet at the park and is planning some significant growth from its current employment base of just seven people. “If we hit the market right, in a couple of years we’ll have several hundred people working for us,” predicts Barnes, the company’s president.

Adds Weiss, the company’s chief financial officer, “Even though there’s a lot of competition in this business, it’s a huge market. ... People are looking for quality products.”

The two executives are relying on a national network of independent contractors they are now knitting together to sell the products and help grow the company. The previous owners sold their products lines exclusively through health food stores located primarily in California.

“We want to sell (Natural Bodycare) on the basis of the product,” Weiss says. “Instead of spending millions of dollars on an advertising campaign with beautiful models, we want to turn (the money) back to people in the form of commissions. ... This is really a business that lends itself to referrals.”

Natural Bodycare was started by Olivia and Stuard Hartman in 1978. The couple’s goal was to manufacturer high quality, all natural skin, hair and bath preparations for a discriminating clientele. The company made the products in its own laboratories using active plant and flower extracts, with healing properties, gathered from around the world.

When the Hartman’s decided to sell their business last year they contacted Weiss, whose main focus is in buying and selling businesses. After reviewing Natural Bodycare’s business plan, Weiss contacted Barnes, a former client of his, and pitched him on the idea of purchasing the California-based company.

“When the deal came along, I first tried to find a buyer for it independently,” Weiss recalls. “But the more I thought about it, I realized it was a good opportunity and (Poulsbo) was a good place to put it.”

Weiss and Barnes would not disclose their purchase price, but said they intended to make the necessary investments in the firm to turn it into a “real company.”

“We bought it primarily for the formulas,” Weiss noted. “(The Hartman’s) didn’t have the funds to take to the next level.”

Barnes, who will run the day-to-day operations of the company, said Natural Bodycare would spend about $100,000 in efforts to re-launch the company. Among other details, the money will be spent on product packaging and bottle redesign as well as local and regional advertising.

“Rob wants to make a serious effort in to launching this company,” Weiss said. “He wants to take this to a $50 million to $100 million company and make it the premiere company in Poulsbo.”

All the company’s offerings — skin creams, shampoos, soaps, etc. — are made from natural products and manufactured in their Poulsbo facility. Weiss said the company is looking for people with network marketing skills that could serve as sales associates.

The two executives said their long-term goal is to “grow the company and pass it along to our families.”

Natural BodyCare can be reached at (360) 697-5558 or by visiting their website at: www.nbbodycare.com.

(Editor’s Note: Kevin Dwyer is Bainbridge Island free-lance writer.)
.