3 years of JUNGLÜCK – milestones, hurdles and a look into the future

We're turning 3! A huge reason to celebrate, not only for the entire JUNGLÜCK team, but especially for our founder Benedikt. I would like to use this opportunity to look back with him on the past few years: the beginnings, the milestones and how Benedikt managed to found a company that operates sustainably and has held on to its core values ​​during its growth in recent years: honesty, sustainability, social responsibility.

1. The idea: The foundation stone of JUNGLÜCK
2. Review: Our milestones
1. The team
2. The product family
3. The core values
3. The hurdles for sustainable start-ups: profitability vs. sustainability
4. Looking ahead: What’s next?

1. The idea: The foundation of JUNGLÜCK

“If someone had told me 3 years ago that we would be where we are today, I would probably have thought they were crazy.” If you have been following our journey, you might know how the idea for JUNGLÜCK came into Benedikt’s head. If not, here is a short excursion: Benedikt discovered through conversations with his wife and his mother that good and natural cosmetics are difficult to identify and obtain. On the one hand, he wanted to give something back to the two most important women in his life, and on the other hand, he saw a great opportunity to help many other people with his own cosmetics brand by producing his products with high standards of quality and sustainability from the very beginning. Looking back, it is really hard to believe what has become of it and how many people start and finish every day with our cosmetics. That makes not only Benedikt, but everyone here at JUNGLÜCK pretty happy!

2. Review: Our milestones

A lot has happened to us in the last three years, much of it behind the scenes. But that's exactly where I'd like to take you for a little insight!

The team

From 1 to 45. And that in 3 years, despite the pandemic. From Benedikt's desk at home, to a small one-room office, to our beautiful, green loft office in the south of Munich. Little by little, more and more people joined us, drove JUNGLÜCK forward and actively pitched in everywhere to get to where we are today. And even further, of course! The move to home office last year couldn't stop us from doing that!

Unlike many other start-ups, we were lucky last year because our online shop was not so negatively affected by the pandemic. The Corona-related difficulties that we had to overcome and the problems for which we had to find solutions and from which we could learn consisted mostly of delays at our suppliers, which also led to shipping backlogs for us. Like the majority of people, we had to get used to only seeing our colleagues and friends via the laptop screen from the home office and new employees have not yet seen the faces of our team in real life. Despite all this "alienation", we have grown closer and closer together, we still have the team spirit from day one and can hardly wait to all be together in the office kitchen again and really get to know each other!

The product family

Our little family has now grown from 3 products to 49 members. And one thing is still the focus: the high quality of the ingredients. A highlight of last year for Benedikt was definitely the launch of our baby care range - because he himself became a father at the start of product development! So it's no wonder that he wanted to develop care products for his little son, just as he had done for his wife and his mother, that he could use on his offspring's baby skin with a clear conscience.

The core values

sustainability
You probably noticed when you first looked at the website that we put the environment first in our product procurement, packaging and general decisions. Benedikt sums it up: "For us, sustainability essentially means that we always keep the sustainability aspect in mind in every decision we make and that we don't do things if it goes against our principles, even if they make economic sense." The best example is probably that JUNGLÜCK is still an owner-managed company. We don't have investors behind us, our founder is behind us. This is something quite special for start-ups of our size and especially in the sustainable sector, which gives us much more freedom to act. Investors often have their own plans for their investment, they have no personal connection to the company and its employees, which is why it is often difficult to make particularly social or sustainable decisions that may be less profitable for the company from a purely economic point of view. For us, this is extremely important because we want to give something back for everything we do and the success we have with it. For us, this is the way to move JUNGLÜCK forward - not at the expense of our own values.

Social responsibility
As we look at the evolution of our major fundraisers, we are incredibly excited about what more we can accomplish as we continue to grow!

• Eden Reforestation Project in the mangroves of Madagascar: We have already planted over a million trees and with every product sold, another one is added!
• Brotzeit eV : The VAT reduction in 2020 benefited this special Munich organization. Children were able to receive school meals for a whole year!
• Lucky Week : Our biggest fundraising initiative to date last November. 7 organizations, 7 campaigns and 7 donation amounts. We are already looking forward to the next Lucky Week!
• Over 180,000€ went to social projects in 2020 alone.
• Building a school in Malawi – Benedikt's special heart project: to build an entire school in one of the poorest regions of Malawi together with the abc society. Because education offers a promising future.
• Our first major campaign : With the exclusively designed shirt for International Women's Day 2021, we were able to donate 19,320€ to Frauenhilfe München gGmbH.

honesty
During our conversation, I asked Benedikt what he hopes for the future: “It would be nice if in the future we could contribute to ensuring that there are more and more people who have acquired their own knowledge about good skin care and we could help them with that.”
This is our mission, which we have been working on from day one: to provide you with well-founded information about skin and hair, but also knowledge about topics such as holistic health and our products, honestly and transparently. To do this, we regularly bring in experts, such as our midwife Anna-Maria, our skincare expert Michael, dermatologists and doctors. We are happy to receive any feedback and requested topics that we receive from our community.
But honesty doesn't stop with our role as advisor. We also want to give you insights into our everyday office life, our production and product development and even give you the chance to get actively involved. That's why we recently launched the customer panel initiative "JUNGLÜCK asks you" to get even closer to your wishes and opinions.

3. The hurdles for sustainable start-ups: profitability vs. sustainability

It is not that easy to start or run a sustainable company, even in 2021. That is why I wanted to know from Benedikt what compromises he had to or has to make when it comes to sustainability and profitability? Especially for a company that is focused on sustainable action?
"For us, sustainable business means that the aspect of sustainability is a strong focus in every decision we make. Nevertheless, some decisions cannot always be implemented in the most sustainable way. The best example of this is the glass packaging that we use. The majority of all cosmetic products are packaged in plastic. For us, glass is a must and that is why it was a huge challenge, especially at the beginning. Unfortunately, this is due to the overall system of the cosmetics industry, in which plastic is unfortunately the number one packaging method. As a smaller company, you are simply not an option for large suppliers. If you ask for a more sustainable closure, you get a rejection. It seems that in this industry in particular there is so much satisfaction and so little willingness to innovate. But once a company reaches a certain size, some things are easier to achieve, such as being able to buy the glass bottles directly from the glassworks."

The bigger the company, the greater the sustainability opportunities. We want to continue to pursue our sustainable goals as strongly as we can at every stage and use our freedom of action to implement our core values, remain true to them and, above all, to you as a customer.

4. Looking ahead: What comes next?

One thing is certain: we have some pretty exciting product launches in the pipeline for this year (and next year too)! At the moment, however, they are still in the internal product development phase and unfortunately we are not allowed to reveal any more details. But what we can assure you is that our development is always based heavily on community surveys, i.e. on what you want from us. So perhaps your dream product will soon be able to move into your bathroom in a JUNGLÜCK bottle.

But what exactly does Benedict want for the future?
"I want to become even more sustainable, with a new product form that is more sustainable in itself, similar to the solid products, which does not require large packaging. We are also currently revising our packaging, so it shouldn't be too long before your order arrives in new shipping packaging. It is important to all of us to become even more understandable and to incorporate even more customer feedback on our products into the development and optimization. In addition to the current school building in Malawi, I would like to be able to give even more organizations and people the opportunity to fulfill their goals, wishes and projects.

“I would find it incredibly nice to be perceived in 10 years as a small pioneer for the approach of sustainable and natural cosmetics, which places a strong focus on the effect, but also keeps the aspect of social responsibility and sustainability in mind and we are seen as a modern brand with the combination of good products and sustainability.”

So you can see that we have big and small dreams and plans for the future. And we will remain true to our core values: demonstrating sustainability in all areas, assuming social responsibility for people and the environment, and approaching you with honesty about our products, the JUNGLÜCK philosophy and topics such as skin care and holistic health.

With this in mind: Celebrate with us and enjoy 3 years of JUNGLÜCK and 20% discount* with the code HAPPY3*