‘Brand hi-jack’ - Silken skin cream maker E.W. Abrahams says ‘fake’ Nadinola hurting sales
Published:Monday | April 8, 2019 | 11:56 AMAvia Collinder - Business Reporter
Cosmetics supplier E.W. Abrahams & Sons Limited (EWA), has been losing market share for its skin-toning product Silken, according to Managing Director Michael Abrahams, and the company blames rivalry from what it says are fake Nadinola products.
E.W. Abrahams used to manufacture Nadinola skin cream for distribution in Jamaica under licence from the American owner of the brand, J. Strickland & Company Limited, but gave up the contract in 2015 to launch its own label.
But Silken has not gained the market traction that the local company expected, and Abrahams insists that it is because they have to compete with fakes.
He says that the labelling of the ‘fake’ Nadinola product initially carried EWA’s name as the distributor but that stopped after he started alerting the public that they no longer manufactured the skin cream.
He also expressed concern about the content of the competing product, saying that the ingredients were unknown.
“We don’t know who is processing this fake Nadinola,” Abrahams said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.
“They had our name on it. Now, they’ve taken off our name, but they have not taken off the name of the owners of Nadinola, which is J. Strickland & Company. It is out there, and we don’t know what it is in it. It has been affecting us,” he said.
The company has taken out newspaper advertisements warning about illicit Nadinola products, which is a household name and popular brand in Jamaica. And Assistant Superintendent of Police Dahlia Garrick says the matter has been reported to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch, or CTOC, for follow-up. It was unclear whether an investigation has been launched as the status update was not forthcoming from the police.
Strickland & Company, in the meantime, says that it only does business with EWA in Jamaica and that any queries about fake products should be directed to Abrahams.
However, Strickland spokeswoman Cheryl Gowen also said that “higglers” or vendors are known to source supplies of Nadinola from Florida for distribution in Jamaica.
Strickland renews the registration of the Nadinola brand name every 10 years in Jamaica, according to the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, which says that the next renewal is due in year 2022. The product remains easily accessible locally in beauty-supply stores and other retail channels.
Silken is also distributed through similar channels.
In its advertisement, E.W. Abrahams claims that the product sold in Jamaica is fake on the basis that “EWA has never disclosed to anyone else the unique details of the genuine formulation for the original Nadinola product”.
Before launching its own brand, EWA, which specialises in skin and haircare products, had manufactured and sold Nadinola in Jamaica since 1967.
Abrahams said Silken had not achieved the level of sales of Nadinola because of the presence of the fake product on the market.
He added, however, that Silken remained a top revenue earner for the company.
Alongside cosmetics, EWA also manufactures other products, including the Volcano brand of matches, which Abrahams says accounts for 10 per cent of sales, while Silken brings in 7-10 per cent of sales. The company operates a plant at its home base at Hagley Park Road as well as a facility at Beechwood Avenue, both in Kingston.
Abrahams says that the losses incurred from the rivalry of the fake Nadinola were significant but difficult to quantify.