In 2008, Anna-Lena Wiklund Rippert and Johan Wiklund decided to invest in their dream of harnessing Swedish Lapland herbs and berries and refining them into luxurious cosmetics. The journey has taken them from a small basement to a modern factory facility in which they are now expanding and ten times the production capacity.
We are basically therapists, anna-lena says – together we can call ourselves as medical podiatrists, skin therapists, masseurs, spa therapists, hairdressers and make up artists. Yes, and so you are an ethnologist and I economist also tabs Johan in. We set our core values on day one and we have remained faithful to them. We want to protect nature, animals and people. Our active substances come from seed oils extracted from blueberries, cloudberries and lingonberries.
We soon realized that one of our many uniques is our background. All products are developed from a therapist's point of view about functionality. Today, people know that there are no creams in the world that can lubricate wrinkles. The reason for using products is to moisturize, preserve and protect, the siblings tell us. Our philosophy may sound contradictory – we want to teach our consumers to use smaller products and the products that we flush out into our sewers should have as minimal an impact as possible on the environment. Every year, 40 tons of microplastics* are flushed into the Baltic Sea from beauty products, which is completely unacceptable. In our products, which provide exfoliation, for example, there are 100% degradable grains that give the same effect.
Today, our main market is our home market, Sweden – Japan has become our second largest market, but we also export to Liv Nordics Span, which is available on luxury cruisers at the Norwegian shipping company Viking Cruises. We have agents in Belgium and the Netherlands and at the end of the year we will start our venture in Germany.
It is with pride that we feel that we have helped put Jokkmokk on the map. We have noticed that our factory shop has become a destination you visit when you come to Jokkmokk. Not least during Jokkmokk's Winter Market, the queues to our factory are ringing after the artisan street in Jokkmokk.
We grew up with an amazing mom and dad who refined everything that came from nature. Meat, berries fish, herbs and roots, always with the utmost respect for nature. Our mother's name is Gerd and we felt that as a tribute to her we named our company c/o Gerd, or, care of Gerd, as we choose to say it.