Flourish Magazine

Stacy Egide, Founder and CEO of Andalou Naturals, tests product in her Novato office. ic ingredients like apples and aloe vera. Behnke keeps her team of 50 employees energized with perks like onsite chair massage, lunchtime boot camp sessions and even a company softball team. boosted me up with vitamin C and chamomile tea." Egide's early exposure to independent retailers and herbal remedies has laid the foundation for a trailblazing career Behnke gave birth to Juice Beauty not too long after she spanning three decades. She owned two Marin-based health became a mother of two. To stay balanced, she keeps her life food stores early in her career, and then, with her husband, simple. She located her office in San Rafael so that she's minutes Mark, founded and marketed several iconic natural brands, away from her home, her children's schools and the retail outlets including Beauty Without Cruelty, Avalon Organics and Alba of her biggest distributors—Whole Foods Markets, Pharmaca and Botanica. She's changing the beauty game once again with ULTA (coming soon to San Rafael). She diligently carves out free Andalou Naturals, a line of 66 products formulated with Fruit time and spends it with family and close friends—biking, sailing, Stem Cell Science™, which blends the power of nature with swimming, or just hanging out at home. And she taps her hus- the power of technology. band and her children for work-related ideas—to their delight. "My husband came up with our tagline, my daughter helps Egide's success comes from her ability to combine her passion for sustainability with spot-on business instincts. Case in point: out at events near her soccer tournaments, and my son advises In 2012 she enrolled the entire Andalou product line in the Non- me on how to market to the teen demographic," she says. "They GMO Project, an intensive process that verifies ingredients are understand what I'm trying to do. It's not just a business. It's part not contaminated by genetically engineered organisms. Several of our lifestyle." months later, Whole Foods Market rocked the natural products world with its own non-GMO initiative—a move that not only Andalou Naturals: A game-changer hits her stride validated Egide's decision but also put the brand ahead of others on the retail shelf. You could say Stacey Egide, founder and CEO of Novato-based "I love the creativity involved in finding solutions to life's chal- Andalou Naturals, has the natural products industry in her DNA. lenges," says Egide. "I give myself permission to ask the question "I was raised in the 1970s by a crunchy granola mom who shopped in health food stores and made her own yogurt," she laughs. "If I wasn't feeling well she didn't offer aspirin, she 10 FLOURISH • FALL 2013  'What if,' knowing that if something as wondrous as the universe is possible, then anything is possible." The evolution of Andalou Naturals exemplifies this philosophy.

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