Belvedere International, the only serious Canadian player in the consumer health and beauty industry, is celebrating its 15th birthday with line extensions of its popular Australian Naturals shampoo and California Legs shaving product lines.

Despite being part of an industry dominated by marketing behemoths, this small Canadian company is prospering on the strength of quality packaging, its own product formulations, and a reasonable price point.

Print advertising for the new California Legs renewal lotion, shaving gel and foot lotion, and the Australian Naturals holding gel, spray gel, and shampoo appears in magazines such as Chatelaine, Canadian Living, and Coup de Pouce.

The company also markets the European Formula line of shampoos, conditioners and styling products, as well as Perfect Balance 2-in-1 shampoo, Nature’s Organics shampoos, Pearls from the Sea bath and shower products, and some children’s bath products.

Belvedere markets its products in Canada, the u.s., Chile, Argentina, China, Turkey and the Middle East.

It also creates private label products and packaging for a number of companies including pharmacy chain Jean Coutu.

Shoppers Drug Mart, K-Mart, Zellers, Pharma Plus Drug Stores, London Drugs, Eaton’s and The Bay, and many others carry Belvedere products.

Started in 1981 by brothers Donald and Michael Belvedere, the company has gone from a minor distributor of American products to a major Canadian shelf presence with a habit of following the right trends the health and beauty market.

The recent launch of new members in its Australian Naturals shampoo and California Legs shaving products lines represents its insistence on remaining competitive, despite being small.

Michelle Sparrock, vice-president of marketing, says Belvedere puts emphasis on creating innovative packaging and formulations, but always offers products at a reasonable price.

‘We typically take a package that looks prestigious and offer it to a mass market consumer,’ Sparrock says.

‘Someone who can’t afford to get a salon product can get Australian Naturals every day for 2.99,’ she says.

According to Donald Belvedere, president of the company, and former president of Revlon Canada and Max Factor Canada, the decision to go to higher quality packaging was based on an inclination to create a relatively upscale image for the products.

‘If something looks good, you feel better about it,’ Donald Belvedere says. ‘It really doesn’t cost that much more to be better looking.’

Belvedere creates the visuals used on the packaging in-house but uses graphics companies to ’embellish’ the concepts.

The Australian Naturals product won a gold packaging award and the California Legs picked up silver at last year’s National Packaging awards.

As well as its distinctive packaging, the Belvederes attribute much of their survival ability to being fortunate enough to have chosen the right trends to follow when creating products.

‘We’re on the cutting edge of the natural-based products comeback,’ says Michael Belvedere, executive vice-president of the company, and, like his brother, previously acquainted with the executive level of the beauty products world, as a vice-president of Faberge Canada.

‘In the hair and skin business, it’s very, very big right now,’ Belvedere says.

‘We were out with the first Australian Naturals two years ago. We seemed to have caught the wave early.’

Of course, the decision to follow the leading trends means little unless the company is agile enough to capitalize on them.

While Belvedere does not have the huge research and development budgets of its competitors, it has the ability to adapt quickly to the changing marketplace.

‘Some people are putting it as high as 50% of women are changing their shampoos at any time,’ Donald Belvedere says. ‘That means 50% of that market is always vulnerable to a new product.’

Other initiatives employed by Belvedere include a policy of not discounting its products so as to maintain good relationships with its retail customers who, says Sparrock, ‘get an excellent price every day that they can get a strong margin on.’

As well, the company maintains an increasingly important image of social responsibility by working closely with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, distributing self-examination cards as point-of-purchase material and at sponsored events, and by donating a percentage of each purchase to the foundation.