Celebrating 25 Years of Group55
2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Group55 – Happy birthday to us! Today, we’re a leading private label manufacturer specialising in Personal Care, Pet Care and Home Care products, but our journey began as a business offering fulfilment and ecommerce services. We evolved to become brand owners, and then setting up our own manufacturing facilities; For a quarter of a century, Group55 has evolved and adapted to meet the ever-changing market, whilst remaining true to our DNA.
Group55 was founded by Stephen Turner in 1999 with just £700, and the business began life as an ecommerce business at the very start of the popularity of the internet. Offering ecommerce sales and fulfilment services for brands who didn’t know where to start. Stephen comments, “Group55 started in a tiny, old, run down unit with no toilet but it did have electricity and everything grew from there! We worked with a small number of clients managing their ecommerce activities and grew to become consultants giving advice to major brands and retailers on the emerging digital economy helping them navigate brand narratives, product portfolios, customer engagement and distribution in this revolutionary space. We found a particular success within the pet sector!”
Seeing the opportunity within the pet industry, Stephen and Group55 launched their first pet care brand, Animology. Taking inspiration from the human, personal care market this brand was at the forefront of the trend of humanisation in the pet care space. Stephen continues, “At the time, all the pet shampoos on shelf followed the same pattern and they all looked like each other. We launched our sleek black tubes and bottles with bold colour accents and functional products with fun names, like ‘Stink Bomb’, ‘Dogs Body’ and ‘Puppy Love’ to disrupt the category and attract pet owners in a way that resonated with how they shop for their own beauty products.”
As Animology grew in success, pet retailers and other pet brands approached us to manage their own pet care ranges and we started creating private label pet care products shortly after. After a number of years working with contract manufacturers, Stephen and the team were unable to find the service level they required so set on the next phase of the journey and set up our own manufacturing facility in 2017. Stephen continues, “We had grown unhappy with the service we were receiving from our contract manufacturer at the time, and after exploring alternative options we couldn’t find anything better, so we decided to set up our own manufacturing facility and vowed to do things differently – we understand what it means to be a brand owner and the challenges that this can bring, so we wanted to become a supportive partner to other brand owners in creating their products. We hired some exceptional talent to help get set up and haven’t looked back since.”
This expansion, and the experience of our new team then opened the doors for Group55 to create products for personal care and household products as well as continuing in the pet care space. Today, we continue to grow and thrive as a contract manufacturer, and we also offer in-house co-packing, warehousing and fulfilment, offering a full 360°service from concept to delivery. Stephen reflects, “We’ve been on quite a journey over the past 25 years, and I’ve always been a big believer in looking at the future state, we’re exploring some of the most innovative technological advances in the space and who knows where the next 25 years will take us. What I do know for sure is, we have something unique to offer to our customers as we’ve been right where they are – and we get it! That gives us a really strong foundation for collaborative, partnership based relationships with our customers; if we can help our customers become successful, we become more successful. Here’s to the next 25 years.”
