Nicola Elliott, Neom Wellbeing‘s co-founder, is recalling the time when she traipsed from spa to spa with two carrots — one farmed by pesticide, the other organic — asking the difference between the two and explaining crop rotation.
In the mid 2000s, natural and wellbeing were far from the British psyche. And Elliott found she had a job on her hands, one of two at the time. “People weren’t ready for it as the understanding wasn’t there. If we launched five years later, perhaps we would have grown a lot quicker,” she says.
Nevertheless, with £45m in revenue, Neom Wellbeing is accustomed to growth ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2025, while its core products haven’t changed. “There is still the same amount of organic and we only use 100% natural fragrances,” adds Elliott.
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Today, Neom’s offering centres around four pillars — help with sleep, de-stressing, boosting energy and lifting the mood. But Elliott, a former glossy magazine editor, and business partner Oliver Mennell, a financial services expert, launched at a time where they still had to explain that their products work as treatments.
“There was no turning point for Neom,” Elliott tells Yahoo Finance UK. “I feel I should be honest about that. People say there was this lightbulb moment but we didn’t build the brand like that. The true story is the hard graft of building a wall brick by brick. Keeping ongoing has created something that is rich, solid and well made.”
As a journalist working 60-hour weeks, Elliott lived in Islington, north London next to a health food store. Hidden at the back were the essential oils. The Yorkshirewoman sought change. “I had some bad anxiety and I went on a mission for a year to look after myself,” she recalls. “I went outside more, saw the sun and retrained as a nutritionist and aromatherapist.”
She also started to blend her own oils, finding her creation smells “quite clunky” at first. As she started to lower her working days at Glamour Magazine, the business founders leveraged £15,000. Elliott sold her car and Mennell — who stepped aside as CEO in 2023 and was replaced by Isabel Malbois — used savings from winnings on a Chris Evans game show.
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With products stacked in Elliott’s spare bedroom, Neom launched with four candles made with 100% natural wax and fragrance. Selfridges became an early stockist, while Kylie Minogue became an early celebrity fan. “Nothing doubled the business but it helped to build the trust in our consumers, that these things resonated and gave it the badge of honour it has now,” says Elliott.
