EAlicia Lindner still remembers her grandmother’s advice: Whoever perseveres, wins. “Always stay longer than everyone else on a sales assignment,” the company founder advised her granddaughter. “The big sales are only made at the end.” Grandmother Annemarie Lindner persevered for a long time.
The emancipated woman from the Black Forest, who founded her own company for natural cosmetics in the 1950s, still experienced how her life theme became a trend. She was able to watch her granddaughter join the company and encourage her: “Alicia, you’re doing wonderfully,” is a sentence that Alicia Lindner remembers. “We are kissed by the zeitgeist,” says another.
In fact, the beauty company Börlind with the brands Annemarie Börlind and Dado Sens has been growing strongly for years – despite the Covid crisis and the Ukraine war. Almost six million jars, tubes and bottles with purely natural ingredients went from the in-house production in the Black Forest to 32 countries last year.
The boss of Europe’s largest perfumery chain Douglas, Tina Müller, has just praised Annemarie Börlind as the “most popular brand” for natural and sustainable cosmetic products. The company turned over more than 60 million euros last year. And if Alicia Lindner has his way, the business should double again in the next eight years. However, the market is highly competitive. Competitors such as Weleda or the drugstore chains DM or Rossmann with their own brands are also courting environmentally conscious customers.
Alicia Lindner took over the management of the company together with her brother Nicolas Lindner two years ago. “Innovative zeitgeist meets the treasures of nature” is the motto issued by the two siblings. Sustainability and new ideas: Börlind goes with the trend – and so does the co-boss. Entrepreneur, 33 years young, mother of three – the radiant woman is in demand as a lecturer and discussion partner on topics such as corporate succession, the compatibility of work and family or beauty trends. Lindner knows that and she knows how to use it. That pays off for the brand.
During the conversation at the company headquarters, Lindner reports on a short night. Her oldest, four years old, kept her parents busy. “Molar teeth, a growth spurt or a development phase – there’s always something,” says Lindner and laughs. You can’t see her tiredness. She is perfectly made up. The coral-colored lipstick matches the pattern in her sundress. The long, dark hair is styled smooth and has a fine sheen. The nails are painted red, even though Börlind doesn’t sell any nail polish. It doesn’t exist with purely natural ingredients.
“Eco image was never our thing,” says Lindner. “We believe in science. And of beauty – in harmony with nature.” The grandmother, who as a young woman wanted to fight her acne with creams she made herself, stood for this and thus became an entrepreneur. “She was always made up, straightened her hair, painted her fingernails,” says Alicia Lindner. People said she looked like her grandmother. The woman, who died in 2016 at the proud age of 95, is still her role model in many ways, emphasizes Lindner. “She wasn’t the reading grandmother, not someone who taught us to ride a bike.” But she had “great business tips” and was an “energetic woman” who never let herself go.
Mother and boss in personal union? That goes well together, thinks Alicia Lindner
Alicia Lindner also has a lot of energy. Your brother can’t be there today because of an urgent private appointment. The self-confident sister also fills the bright conference room alone. She reports team meetings at this same large, oval table with one of her three children, a few weeks after the birth. The baby was passed from one to the next, the mood was enchanted. Everyone would have spoken quieter and slower.
Yes, mother and boss, they go well together. Also because she and her brother complemented each other well. He, who is five years his senior, is responsible for purchasing, production and IT, logistics and marketing. She is responsible for sales and finances. Both had decided early on that they only wanted to take over the management of the company from their father together. The two have two sisters. The older one decided early on to follow a “spiritual path” as a yoga teacher. The younger one is still studying but is interested in joining the company.
The family worked out early on with a mediator who can do what and who would like to fill which role. Not every individual took a coach, it was about the family community, emphasizes Alicia Lindner. She joined the family business in 2015 after studying in Friedrichshafen and Scotland, a trip around the world and professional experience in a Munich marketing agency. On January 1, 2020, she and her brother took over the management from their father Michael Lindner.
Clear conditions and a clear deadline were necessary to push through new ideas, says Lindner. More focus on their own online shop, a presence in social networks like Instagram, these are ideas that the siblings are now implementing. “We’re a great team,” says Alicia Lindner. “Nicolas is structured, very reliable and incredibly effective.” Lindner gives the impression that she is not inferior to him. But she doesn’t want to say that, as she prefers to start sentences with words like “Others say about me”. Just this much: she is more extroverted than her brother and “likes to be outside”.
It also works so well because her husband has her back. He is significantly older than her, was most recently the head of an insurance company and was happy to move to the provinces with her. “For me it’s a job, for you it’s your calling,” he said, and now he picks up the three children – one and a half, three and four years old – from kindergarten at lunchtime.
Alicia Lindner, Managing Director of Börlind, at the company site in Calw in the Black Forest
Source: Verena Mueller
“I think that’s a cool role model,” says Alicia Lindner. She is usually home for dinner. It’s not far for her. It is only a few hundred meters from the company headquarters to the family home. They live in Altburg, a district of Calw in the Black Forest, surrounded by forest and lush meadows.
This is where grandmother once picked the first flowers for her creams. In the meantime, an automated production line including a high-bay warehouse has been created. Oils, fragrances and plant extracts are delivered and mixed with the water from our own deep spring. The ingredients come mainly from Europe.
Börlind was therefore hardly affected by the delivery problems after Covid and Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In retrospect, the pandemic was even an opportunity, says Alicia Lindner. “The exceptional situation showed us how much knowledge and willingness to make decisions are in the employees. That gave us momentum for a more open, less patriarchal leadership culture.”
Although the perfumeries – one of Börlind’s main sales intermediaries – were closed for months, sales in the Corona year 2020 fell only slightly because business via the website, health food stores and organic supermarkets flourished. People obviously wanted to do something good for themselves even in the crisis, says Alicia Lindner. Her goal: “We want to remain a love brand, and that also for the younger ones.” A premium brand that is a desired product, not just a cream that you just need.
Alicia Linder also contributes privately to achieve this goal. She posts her own experiences of discrimination against women in professional life on social networks such as LinkedIn, reports on customers who would have liked to have had her as a “casual girlfriend”, and reaped more than 1.2 million views for it. She gives lectures and accepts awards. And like her grandmother, she continues to tour the perfumeries of the republic as a salesperson. In the past few weeks alone she has been to Bremen, Wiesbaden, Berlin and Frankfurt. And she always stayed until the very end.
“Everything on shares” is the daily stock exchange shot from the WELT business editorial team. Every morning from 7 a.m. with our financial journalists. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer. Or directly by RSS-Feed.