Boots partners with RangeMe to boost its range of new and diverse brands

In the latest push to democratise the high street's beauty offering, Boots has partnered with RangeMe to strengthen its commitment to working with startups, SMEs and diverse businesses.

The partnership will see health and beauty retailer Boots expand the number of new and diverse suppliers it works with in-store and online.

Currently, Boots has over 200,000 suppliers registered on its platform, but the retailer hopes that the RangeMe partnership will be a portal to working with the best new and emerging brands.

The aim, said Boots, is to strengthen the store’s commitment to working with a broad range of suppliers, including SMEs and diverse businesses, and to support a fair and equal chance to compete for opportunities.

This could mean a broader range of homegrown Black-owned and POC-owned brands and a more inclusive shopping experience in the future. 

The news follows the introduction of hundreds of new proprietary brands in Boots stores and on boots.com in the last year and is the latest push from the high street to “democratise” the beauty market. 

In April this year, Superdrug announced that “Superdrug Marketplace” would be launching towards the end of 2022 with the goal of giving a platform to more sustainable, gender-neutral and black-owned companies as well as more premium brands.  

“Our partnership with RangeMe will create a direct route for interesting and innovative brands to reach and pitch to our buying team, that cater to our diverse customer base and local communities,” said Steve Ager, chief customer and category officer at Boots. 

“We introduced hundreds of new product brands last year, and we’ve seen many interesting start-ups launch post-pandemic. We’re looking forward to being able to support these businesses in their success by offering a new way for our buyers to discover them.”

RangeMe launched in 2014 and is used today by more than 15,000 retail buyers in the UK, Europe, North America and APAC region.

The platform helps retailers and buying teams scale product sourcing efforts. Buyers can filter searches to find brands and products meeting exact sourcing needs, connect and collaborate with suppliers, and access curated collections to help identify and understand category trends and emerging brands.

Nicky Jackson, chief executive of RangeMe, added, "This is also an extraordinary opportunity for suppliers around the world to connect directly with Boots buyers and showcase their products.”