Bridges and Kearney say the rebranding and the next 12 months are critical to the brand’s survival. “It’s a scary time but it’s necessary,” Bridges says of the decision. Kearney agrees: “I’m like, fuck it. There’s no case study for that, you know?

It’s not just about the name: despite a turnover of £10m, Haeckels was struggling with costly overheads and making a loss.

To finance the recovery, Haeckels had to court investors. It launched a funding round in June 2024 which saw it receive a further injection of funding from the investment arm of Estée Lauder Companies, NIV (which invested in the brand in 2021 and 2023). The brand is seeking further investment and hopes to close the round in the coming months at £6 million. ELC declined to comment on the relaunch but referred to its initial investment, when it said the funding would help the brand “continue doing what it does best: championing sustainability, creating products that change the give and fight for greater transparency in beauty matters.”

This was not an easy subject to broach with potential investors. “We live in a new climate where brands need to put everything on the table,” says Kearney. “We were presenting our five-year plan and we knew we had to let the cap table know what critical changes we were going to make. There was no way we were going to present a plan, ask for money and later surprise them. So it was absolutely nerve-wracking,” she recalls. The reception has been positive, she says; investors agreed that change needed to happen now.

A total overhaul

The investment has been used to recruit key new recruits, including a global commercial head, e-commerce head and finance director, and will be used to drive the acceleration of new market penetration, with sights on States -United and Europe. Bridges, who had stepped away from his day-to-day active role to focus on conservation in Cornwall, returned to the business as head of innovation, using his knowledge of conservation to overhaul packaging.

All skin, bath and body products are now packaged in vivomer (a compostable plastic alternative made from microbes that biodegrade within a year in healthy household compost). All secondary packaging has been removed from the products, with the exception of perfumes and candles, as they have a glass exterior and use mushroom-shaped packaging (mycelium), which is already biodegradable. “We’re moving forward and are looking at launching refillable candles for December and scents to follow,” says Kearney. The brand also plans to release a set of limited-edition ceramics made from leftover algae and pizza oven ashes. “We want to create objects and containers that customers can refill and reuse,” she adds.