Suntribe Co-Founder Talks Sunscreen Market & Brand’s Future

Suntribe is an award-winning cosmetics company producing sunscreens 100% free from synthetic chemicals whilst retaining high functionality and safety, a must have product for any conscious outdoor sports enthusiast. We grabbed co-founder Karl Roos to find out more about the history of the brand, market performance and where they see the future of sunscreens is heading.

Please can you give us a brief history of the brand, who’s the team behind Suntribe?
The brand was founded in Sweden in 2016, by a group of friends who discovered that there was a severe problem with sunscreens – and that someone needed to solve that. I had lived in Australia for several years and was shocked coming back to Europe to find that I couldn’t buy mineral sunscreen anywhere. Then things went very fast – we met some lovely people who taught us how to manufacture the original recipe that we still use for our Zinc sunscreens today (Zinc Sticks & Tins), and then we formed the company around that. Using and preaching mineral sun protection daily.

Our mission has always been to reduce the number of chemical sunscreens being used, by providing a worry-free alternative. We started full-on focusing on the surfing scene, basically making the best natural zinc that we’d want to use ourselves, and since we’re still surfing, we’re still completely committed to making the most kick-ass natural performance sunscreens out there. But we realise not everyone surfs, so over the last 5 years we have grown our portfolio to also include products for a more general use, and therefore attract more people into making the switch to mineral based and all natural sunscreens.

What is Suntribe’s USP?
You can be sure that all Suntribe ingredients are safe for your health and nature and that our packaging is sustainable.

What is currently your best-selling product line, and have you noticed any trends over the last couple of seasons?
Our best-selling product lines are our Zinc Sticks combined with our Natural Mineral SPF 30 Sunscreen tubes. These two products deliver what most people need, a serious face / zinc protection for sports, together with a non-whitening liquid mineral sunscreen. I think why the Zinc Sticks have gotten really popular is because they present a simple choice, compared to most alternatives in the store they are 100% natural, and they offer 30 grams of Zinc sunscreen compared to the usual 10 or 15 grams which we see in most of the market. The trend we have noticed is for sure to develop high-tech mineral-only formulations and really push the boundaries of what you can do. Our best-selling tube Natural Mineral SPF 30 is after 5 years development, miles ahead of the original formulation in terms of spread-ability, non-whitening and even shelf-life. While still retaining a strictly natural formula. This development trend is setting the stage for the natural sunscreens’ entry into the mainstream space.

What is currently your top performing European market?
It’s Germany, closely followed by France and Portugal.

What is your distribution set up in Europe, where do you sell more – through your online shop or with distributors/retailers?
We currently have a setup mainly committed to distribution partnerships in the EU. More than two thirds of our business come from distributors and retailers.

Where are Suntribe’s products manufactured and where are the ingredients sourced?
We manufacture our products in Portugal and many of our ingredients come from certified organic agriculture. We keep the supply chain as local as possible, sourcing most of our raw materials from the EU.

Do you have any new products set for release this year?
For sure! This year we are releasing our SPF 50 Zinc Stick line with the new addition Mint Green. This expands our Zinc Stick offering to 5 colours, and we offer a unique wooden display to present the Sticks in store!

Where do you see the opportunities in the sun protection market over the next few years?
I see a lot of opportunities in the mineral-only space. Soon we will have SPF 50 mineral body sunscreens with identical usability as chemical ones. We will see mineral-only spray products becoming stronger and more versatile. We will see a lot of established conventional cosmetic companies releasing their own mineral-only product lines. I definitely predict that mineral formulations will dominate the new releases in the market for the foreseeable future.

How do you support your retail base?
At Suntribe we really believe in strong partnerships with our retailers, since that is the core of our business. We provide unique wooden Point of Displays for all our products. We provide a general shelf display for the entire range, a Zinc Stick display, and a display for the Zinc sunscreens in 15g tins. With this we also provide thick self-standing posters and a range of thin quirky posters.