Drag Racing Accident Destroys Clean Cosmetics Brand Au Naturale’s Office And Production Facility

A drag racing accident has destroyed clean cosmetics brand Au Naturale’s 4,000-square-foot office and production facility in Green Bay, Wis. 

The accident occurred on July 23 when the driver of a minivan going 110 miles per hour crashed into the facade of the 200-year-old building housing the office and product facility, causing a fire and the collapse of the facade. The driver was able to walk out of the minivan after the crash and was taken to a local hospital. Green Bay resident Merissa Reed, 29, has been arrested and charged in connection with the crash.

Au Naturale has been working out of the historic building for eight years. There are five businesses that operate out of it, but the brand’s business was by far the most impacted by the accident. Founder Ashley Prange estimates it’s lost over $1 million worth of machinery, packaging, ingredients, computers and more as a result of the crash.

“The only business that’s a total loss is ours,” she says. “Our entire monitor system that we had that would line up production schedules and when things needed to be made and how much needed to be done on that day, all of that technology fell into the road when that front wall came down, and they wouldn’t let me go in because of the threat of asbestos. It’s just all gone.”

Au Naturale has insurance, but Prange was informed it might be a year before the brand receives any reimbursement as the investigation of the accident proceeds. One big takeaway from the accident for her is to have ample insurance coverage. To fellow brand founders, Prange advises, “Have a general policy that totally covers you. Not having it can be the difference of whether you can stay in business or not. It can all go in a flash freak accident like this. The only way you can rebuild is if you have some money to do that.”

All Au Naturale was able to recover following the accident was a $10,000 order that was packed to go out on July 24 and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It used a company called Eclipse for the ERP. “I made all these formulations, I can recreate them, but they’re all on this system. Some of the files are backed up, but the whole system’s living on that one hard drive, and we just need it,” says Prange, admitting she should “update technology because it’s my fault that we have this archaic system that really should be in something like Fishbowl.” 

Au Naturale is focused on rebuilding and charging ahead. Prange is using the forced tabula rasa to accelerate ambitious plans that had been in the pipeline. One major plan is the creation of True North Labs, a clean beauty production and fulfillment facility that will serve independent clean beauty companies. Prange says it’s “for smaller brands that need to find a trusted partner that’s consistent, truly sustainable, clean and delivering what they said they would deliver.” 

She has brought on Greg Newman, a production expert and founder of wellness brand Vie 4 Health, as interim CEO to help manage Au Naturale and True North. Prange says several brands are already interested in partnering with True North and interest is likely to increase once The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA) provisions go into effect on December 29. The federal legislation passed last year enhances the United States Food and Drug Administration’s authority over cosmetics. 

Located in Green Bay, True North has a sister lab in Los Angeles that will handle over-the-counter formulations such as sunscreen. The sister lab will also pick up production slack for Au Naturale. Prange estimates that orders placed today might not be filled for three to four weeks. 

Separate from the building that was destroyed, Au Naturale has storage facilities where it keeps surplus supplies, especially components, which Prange says are time-consuming elements of production. She says, “It takes a lot of time to design, manufacture and produce and then ship and receive and prep and execute.” 

Prior to the pandemic, Au Naturale had a partnership with Whole Foods. The brand entered the grocer in 2017, two weeks before Amazon announced it would be acquiring the chain. Prange says Whole Foods saw a “mass exodus” of the employees who initially shepherded Au Naturale into its stores and her relationship with it became “very impersonal.”

By the time the pandemic arrived in the U.S., Au Naturale was in nearly 300 Whole Foods locations. For each store, the brand had to purchase a custom merchandising unit displaying 63 items that cost $8,500 to $9,000 a piece. Even though Au Naturale’s prices largely ranging from $15 to $42 skew high for Whole Foods’ beauty assortment consumers were still buying the brand. Once the stock was sold through, the grocer would reorder. However, once COVID hit, Prange reports Whole Foods took the displays off the floor. 

“We had aging inventory just sitting there with an expiration date fast approaching, and we’re on the hook for all returns,” she says. “Even if people were like, ‘I know you have Au Naturale in the back, could you please grab me a blush in Pomegranate?,’ which no one was really doing, it just wasn’t viable during COVID.” 

Prange decided to pull Au Naturale out of Whole Foods at a loss of around $800,000. The massive loss from departing Whole Foods accentuated the impact of the drag racing accident. She says, “At the end of the day, we wouldn’t be in hot water now if it weren’t for Whole Foods. I personally will never make the decision to partner with a retailer like that again.” 

Prange credits Au Nautrale’s online community as carrying the brand through its Whole Foods struggles. She says, “I can always point to how much money we have coming in per month from them. That’s still our bread and butter. I don’t want them thinking that we can’t provide for them. Orders will be delayed, but not by long. So, if people want to support us, they should still order things. We’ll let them know if we can’t fill it.” 

During COVID, Au Naturale put launches on hold, but has begun to fast-track them. The brand’s upcoming It Stick, a multipurpose color product, will be in 40 shades and encased in biodegradable plastic and hemp secondary packaging.

“It is such a special product primarily because the packaging is so sustainable, the ingredients are beautiful, and there’s nothing on the market as clean as this,” says Prange. “When I say that, I mean it’s sustainable and it’s good for you, no silicones, nothing that doesn’t biodegrade. It’s a beautiful performance product with just organic ingredients. Its multi-use technology is something that we’ll then have throughout the entire brand and now, because of this accident, that will come sooner than later.”

It Stick will retail for around $22. The accessible price is important to Prange. While she’s not interested in it being seen as a masstige offering, she thinks clean beauty has gotten overpriced in recent years. Prange says, “I know a lot of people who would love to adopt more clean products, but they can’t spend $400 doing a full face.”

Coming out of the drag racing tragedy with Au Naturale’s most sustainable and clean product yet is the lemonade Prange is making from the mountain of lemons of the accident. She says, “Moving forward, we’re only zeroing in more on what we have always been and doing a better job with storytelling and giving people a more purist version of what we have been. I did the math yesterday, and I’m just like, I think we can actually be making product in two weeks. I’m here for that.”