I read this on Phoenix. Posting it as it's behind a paywall but I have a sub. It explains the business structure.
TAN QUEEN Marissa Carter appears seriously browned off with her business partners, having taken to Instagram to announce that she plans to take legal action against them.
These partners in the tan company are also behind the mega-successful pharmacy wholesale distributor, Sundrelle, which made a profit of €3.76m in 2019, bringing accumulated profits to over €29 million.
The Meath-based Sundrelle is owned by its directors Fran O’Gorman (54%), Donal O’Gorman (20%) and Elizabeth O’Gorman (16%), with the remaining 10% owned by Thomas Nolan.
Directors’ remuneration for 2019 came in at €2.5m, a reduction on the previous year when they shared €3.7m.
Sundrelle exclusively distributes both the Cocoa Brown by Marissa Carter tan range founded by Carter in 2012 and Suzanne “SoSu” Jackson’s range of tans and cosmetics. It also distributes various other brands, including Flormar, Tommie Tippee and Carmex.
The company behind the Cocoa Brown joint venture, Woodley Cottage Ltd, was incorporated in 2015. Carter’s unlimited company, MCCB Beauty, owns a third of the shares, while Carenno Limited (Fran) owns 36%, Roletto Ltd (Donal) owns 20% and Montoro Ltd (Thomas) owns 10%.
They are all directors as is Carter’s husband, Ronan O’Flaherty, and the company’s accumulated profits were almost €1m in 2019.
After she launched Cocoa Brown, Carter built up a big social media following. She was one of the first to harness the appeal of beauty bloggers to promote her products and grow the brand.
This strategy hit a sticky patch in 2017 when she declared to Nick Webb on Joe.ie’s Capital B business podcast that there was “absolutely no authenticity left in that business” and the “value of a blogger endorsement is nothing.”
Naturally, this proclamation didn’t go down well with the blogging community, with many prominent beauty influencers publicly declaring that they would never promote Carter’s products again.
Even without their support, Cocoa Brown has done very well and is now sold in over 23 countries worldwide. It is even available in America’s largest retailer, Walmart.
Carter also has a budget cosmetics range, Carter Beauty Cosmetics, which she launched in 2018 with 103 products. It is distributed by Uniphar and the businesswoman stated on Instagram that she owns it completely.
When the cosmetics range launched, Carter held fan events around the country and promoted the new brand heavily on social media over the following year, as she had also done with Cocoa Brown.
She has 126,000 followers on her personal page, Cocoa Brown has 116,000 and Carter Beauty Cosmetics has 64,000. Carter is also well-connected as her products have been worn by celebrities like Ariana Grande, Cardi B and Kourtney Kardashian.
With such a high-profile and active presence, followers were baffled when she completely vanished from social media and event hosting for a number of months mid-2019, before returning to the limelight in 2020 .
During that time, Sundrelle noticeably ramped up its involvement in publicising the tanning products.
Over the past 24 hours, a tearful Carter has taken to Instagram on several occasions to declare her intention to take legal action against her Cocoa Brown business partners. She has also alleged that she no longer has access to the brand’s social media accounts.
While Sundrelle has the financial backing to defend a potential legal battle, its dilemma is that Carter can – and is – openly airing her gripes to her followers, who are also its customers.
Her name is synonymous with the tan and is also physically written on every bottle, and she has been the very public face of the brand for almost a decade.
Sundrelle’s money and Carter’s relentless promotion have combined to make a very successful product in recent years, and it could be argued that both were equally necessary for the brand to receive the traction it has achieved.
If an amicable solution isn’t swiftly forthcoming between both parties, the situation is likely to get a whole lot darker
