Health & Her, a Cardiff based hormone-health brand founded by Kate Bache and Gervase Fay in 2019, sells a wide a range of science-backed supplements globally that are designed to address hormonal changes in women and men.
The products support wellbeing during menstrual cycles, perimenopause, menopause, post-menopause and andropause, helping women and men as they navigate difficult times in their lives.
The Health & Her range is complemented by a female wellness app, currently used by women in 176 countries.
Stocked by major UK retailers like Boots, Holland & Barrett and Superdrug, the company currently exports to Germany, Ireland, the US and China, with plans to enter the UAE.
The US is now the company’s largest export market after securing a deal with the leading US pharmacy chain CVS, as well as Vitamin Shoppe, a nutritional supplement retailer with over 700 stores. And in China, Health & Her has partnered with a local agency to reach millions of shoppers across online channels like Tmall, TikTok and Douyin.
Health & Her has benefitted from various Welsh Government export support schemes that are intended to support business in Wales on their export journey.
Health & Her attributes much of its success to the strength of Wales’ strong life sciences sector. Before launching in 2019, the company’s founders opted for Cardiff over London or Bristol as its base after being introduced to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in Cardiff Bay, which provided free office space and a ready-made, sector relevant ecosystem.
Being based at the Hub enabled them to form relationships with relevant organisations and partners, including the Welsh Government’s Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP) which supports high-growth Welsh SMEs. Later, they connected with Business Wales’ international trade team to help them start exporting
The company also established an ongoing relationship with the Development Bank of Wales, securing multiple funding rounds for expansion.
As a research-backed and data driven company, Health & Her has strong links with Welsh universities, including the University of Wales, Cardiff University and Swansea University.
Its academic journey began through a relationship with the University of Wales’ Knowledge Exchange Skills Scholarships (KESS) programme and this also led to collaborations with other academics, via programmes like Accelerate which started a new partnership with Swansea University.
These ongoing relationships, alongside Health & Her’s ability to contribute global health data from its app, have helped secure multi-million-pound funding rounds for Health & Her backed research projects in collaboration with Cardiff and Swansea Universities.
The majority of Health & Her products are fully recyclable and the company is B Corp pending. Its founders are determined to live by their company vision which places huge importance on health and wellbeing.
With this in mind, another kay factor in deciding to locate in Wales was ease of access to green spaces and coastline in and around Cardiff.
The company credits the smaller size of Wales’ business ecosystem, the direct links to academia, and the availability of easily accessible business support and funding, as key to its ongoing success.
Founders Kate Bache and Gervase Fay, said: “We firmly believe that we would not be achieving our current levels of success if we were not in Wales. There is so much opportunity here. It’s a really nurturing place for a start-up looking to scale, but also has an international outlook.
“Our potential was quickly understood and we were supported to trade overseas just a couple of years after launch. It’s unlikely we could have moved that fast being based elsewhere.
“From our own experiences and based on conversations with other founders, support here is far more accessible than other regions. Business ecosystems in other parts of the UK, particularly London, can be difficult to navigate, disparate and vague, with so many layers to traverse and huge amounts of competition for support, funding, talent and attention.
“Businesses based in Wales are backed by Wales. We really believe that by being located here we will succeed in our mission to be the world’s number one brand for hormone health.”
