As of tomorrow, August 1st, Karen’s Body Beautiful will have moved on from the Myrtle Avenue commercial corridor in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The local powerhouse of natural homemade hair and body products had been located on Myrtle Avenue since 2004.
The boutique, owned by husband and wife team Karen Tappin Saunderson and Damani Saunderson, has been on a strong upward trajectory since starting in business. In fact, this move marks the third time Karen has outgrown a business space. The first occurred when she moved into her first small retail space on Clinton Avenue just off Myrtle after years as a home-based business. A few years later, Karen moved into her Myrtle Avenue retail space just a half block away. The larger Myrtle Avenue space allowed Karen to build a larger kitchen in order to increase distribution, and obtain much more visibility by being on a busy block with more foot traffic. “As my business and staff grew, it allowed more time for me to think about expansion and the direction to take the business in—we decided to concentrate on even greater distribution, getting the product placed in different stores to expand the brand,” shared Karen. This hard work led to deals with several national retailers – soon to be announced – that are in the works for 2013. The new Sunset Park facility, though smaller than the Myrtle retail space, allows for a larger kitchen space for manufacturing in order to successfully meet the demands of mass market distribution.
For this company founded on the principle of using natural ingredients, do not expect any changes in quality. “Our products won’t change in quality in any way. We made sure of this when creating our relationships with these national retailers. We will control our ingredients and formulations and still make our products ourselves. That’s a priority to us–that our products continue to work as well as they always have for our customers,” shared Karen. Karen has also served as the secretary on the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership BID’s Board of Directors, and has long been lending a voice to merchant concerns and broader avenue issues while helping to guide the direction of the organization.
Karen’s press release about the relocation, states, “with a heavy heart, we close our shop and spa. We will miss our amazing customers dropping by to chat. (This move) will allow us to share our products with women all over the U.S. in a convenient and direct way.” Karen’s Body Beautiful will relocate to a larger loft space in Sunset Park which will be used as a manufacturing base to increase in order to increase product distribution. “We are working on increasing our distribution and that means getting our products into other stores,” stated Karen.
For die hard Karen’s Body Beautiful fans, online sales will be still be available and select products will be carried by Move with Grace Yoga and Dance Studio at 469 Myrtle Avenue.
Wishing Karen, Damani and the Karen’s Body Beautiful team all the best in this next chapter.
Visit Karen’s Body Beautiful to stay up to date on store happenings.
