Ava Anderson Non Toxic faces no growing pains

A FRESH SLATE: Ava Anderson, a junior at Babson College, founded Ava Anderson Non Toxic as a teenager to combat what she saw as an overuse of harmful chemicals in beauty and other household products. The company is expected to reach $25 million in sales this year. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A FRESH SLATE: Ava Anderson, a junior at Babson College, founded Ava Anderson Non Toxic as a teenager to combat what she saw as an overuse of harmful chemicals in beauty and other household products. The company is expected to reach $25 million in sales this year. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

At age 15, Ava Anderson was too young to execute contracts on behalf of Ava Anderson Non Toxic, the direct sales company she started. The mission-driven company was founded to introduce people to the dangers of harmful chemicals found in home cleaning and personal care products and to offer alternatives for everyone, said Anderson.

At its 2009 launch, the company sold one line of six skin care products. Today, 60 employees with administrative, executive, manufacturing and shipping responsibilities are based in Ava Anderson Non Toxic’s East Providence facility. Product lines for face, body, scent, hair, men, baby, home, pet and sun offer 80 specific items, and there is a long list of products the company hopes to launch in the future. Nevertheless, Anderson said, “We have a nontoxic alternative to almost anything you could need to use on a daily basis.”

The company’s 2015 projected revenue is $25 million to $40 million, representing at least a doubling of sales over 2014.

As a freshman at Moses Brown School in Providence, Anderson read an Environmental Working Group report revealing that teenage users of commonly accessible personal care products had tested positive for several harmful chemicals. Horrified, she initially believed she could purchase safe, natural alternatives at health food or drug stores.

- Advertisement -

Her year of research demonstrated that the terms “natural,” “safe” or “pure” are not regulated in the United States. “Once I learned to read labels, I realized there are still dozens of other harmful chemicals that I didn’t want to expose myself to,” she said.

The company’s products are made at a few U.S.-based, private-label manufacturers and the company’s East Providence facility, which is now too small to fulfill orders. Plans are in play to relocate to a larger, undisclosed location in Rhode Island.

The company’s diaper cream is a best seller. “People use it for their eczema, psoriasis and rosacea,” said Anderson, who oversees product development. “Although we can’t use the term ‘healing properties,’ it contains calendula, which Civil War-era soldiers used for wound care and cell-regeneration properties.”

Anderson independently pursued her science and product-labeling research, but direct sales may be in her blood. Her grandfather started Princess House Crystal and her father, Frohman, was involved in several direct sales business. She is a third-generation member of the Direct Selling Association, a national trade association of direct sales companies.

While company executives have talked with QVC and HSN and Anderson met with ABC Shark Tank’s Daymond John, the direct sales model works for the company, said Anderson.

Two full-time trainers educate and inform the consultants on products through training sessions, webinars, consulting calls and written materials, said Anderson. “The health message needs to be shared one-on-one or one-on-10 … in that home-party setting. There’s not enough room on the

bottle to explain the facts.” The firm’s 7,000 consultants sell in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and many U.S. military bases.

From the outset, Kim Anderson, Anderson’s mother and Ava Anderson Non Toxic’s president, supported her daughter’s dual desire to inform others about the existence of harmful chemicals in daily use products and to offer safer alternatives.

Anderson’s mother “works about 100 hours a week with our consultants and running all the different operations that we have,” she said. When Ava Anderson is not juggling her commitments as a junior at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., she handles the company’s public relations.

Both Ava and Kim Anderson have visited policymakers in Washington, D.C. – in 2011 and again in 2013 – to advocate for stronger labeling laws. Envisioning no progress on legislative or regulatory fronts, Anderson said, “[Angry] moms and dads are the fastest way to change the marketplace. They can make safer choices and vote with their dollars.”

She encourages consumers to identify the harmful chemicals, ask for the store manager, explain that you will no longer buy such products and ask that the company’s buyer be notified. “When it starts to affect their profit, that’s the time they’ll change,” she added. •

No posts to display