Industry | Retail |
---|---|
Founded | 2011 |
Founders | Jessica Alba, Brian Lee, Sean Kane, Christopher Gavigan, Maria Ivette P |
Headquarters | Santa Monica, California, New Jersey |
Area served
|
United States, Canada |
Key people
|
CEO Brian Lee COO Sean Kane CPO Christopher Gavigan |
Products | Consumer goods |
Website | honest.com |
The Honest Company is an American consumer goods company, co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, that emphasizes non-toxic household products to supply the marketplace for ethical consumerism. The company had $170 million in 2014 sales and was valued at $1.7 billion as of August 2015[update]. The company has raised multiple rounds of venture capital and anticipates an initial public offering in the near future. Honest serves the United States and Canada. The company has been the subject of some controversy.
I founded The Honest Company on this idea: Everything that touches you and your family--everything in your home--needs to be nontoxic, needs to be effective and beautiful to look at, and needs to be affordable.
Alba was inspired by the 2008 birth of her first child Honor and her own history of childhood illnesses to create a company that provided an alternative to the prevalent baby products with ingredients such as petrochemicals and synthetic fragrances. She was compelled to become serious about this venture when one of her mother's product recommendations caused her child a welt outbreak. It took Alba three years to find her business partners—chief executive officer Brian Lee, chief operating officer Sean Kane, and chief product officer Christopher Gavigan. Despite advice that she should start small with a singular focus, Alba launched the company in 2011 with 17 products. While building her company, Alba has lobbied the United States Congress to make the testing of children's clothing and toys for chemical inputs more stringent.
2013 sales were $50 million. In November 2014, the company had 275 employees and was projected to do $150 million in sales. 80% of its sales were online via a monthly subscription service with the remainder being done in department stores and discount warehouses. The company eventually totalled $170 million in sales in 2014.