Nurme was one of the nominees of the “Entrepreneurship Awards” 2022

As Nurme’s biggest friends already know, Nurme entered the TOP 3 of the “Entrepreneurship Awards” competition in the “Family Business of the Year” category.

It is an entrepreneurship competition organized by the joint institution of EAS and Kredex and the Central Union of Estonian Employers, which will be held for the 27th time this year. This is a great recognition for us and an honor to be among the nominees of Estonia’s longest-running business competition. As we pass this milestone, it’s fitting to look back in time to see how we got to this point in 13 years.
How did Nurme start?

One of the creators of Nurme, the family’s daughter Marit, would describe the beginning of Nurme like this: “Nurme’s first products were soap bars, which I made in my home kitchen as Christmas gifts for friends and relatives. Creating a family business was certainly not a conscious choice on our part. It was the economic crisis time and my mother became unemployed. Coming from a baker’s background, she was ready to take the bull by the horns. Producing cosmetics for sale from my idea became her new goal and our shared passion.”

Who exactly are a part of the Nurme family business?

Mother Luule has been a key person in building the foundation of the company. She has been under a pile of paperwork since the creation of Nurme. She defended the business plan to get support for starting a company, and for that, she, with dedication, first went through entrepreneurship training. “From the beginning, Luule has been the most professional in paperwork, but she has also been responsible for managing the production itself and finding production employees,” says Marit, who considers herself more responsible for the more creative part of work.

Marit is focused on brand building and the project management of all product development is her area of responsibility. She selects raw materials and suppliers, develops recipes, ensures that the products meet all the requirements of good manufacturing practices. Marit compiles product information, directs design, and is involved in marketing and sales processes. “Purchasing packaging is also my field. In addition, I am the “environmental policeman” of the company, who ensures that an environmentally friendly choice is made at every stage,” she explains her sharp-eyed job.

But who are the men behind the Nurme brand? Märt, the father of the family, is also involved in Nurme’s activities, who has been helping the women in every situation since the beginning. In the beginning, he installed shelves and a stove, but today the Nurme production farm, where we have been operating for the last five years, has been renovated by his own hands. Märt is the builder, logistician, and technician in our family company.

There is one more family member involved, Marit’s husband Jimmy. He has been Nurme’s mentor throughout their 7-year life together, and for the last two years, her husband has also been the CEO of Nurme. “His strength is IT management and technology. Thanks to his great consistency, we have a very strong e-shop, digitalization roadmap, effective marketing and sales strategies,” says Marit.

How do we operate as a family business?

All four of us are lifelong learners: we have learned from scratch how to formulate cosmetics, how to do marketing and sales, how to take care of accounting, etc. Our family has participated in EAS strategy practicum, product development master class and digitization master class. Of course, the Nurme family is not doing all this by themselves anymore, but we now have a strong team behind us. However, all four of us are the ones who can still be seen doing all types of work. That’s how you sometimes see the CEO driving a forklift in the warehouse, Luule making soap, Marit displaying goods in Selver, and Märt bottling shampoos.
Of course, the biggest plus is that the whole family has one common goal. This is what keeps Nurme together. During the 13 years of operation, everything has fallen into place, everyone has a role and we can take advantage of each other’s strengths. We’ve had disagreements, but they’ve always ended with progressive solutions.

What are we working towards together?

You can trust your whole family in the hands of Nurme, because we produce natural body care products from hair to toes for both babies and adults. Nurme is based on the principle of environmental sustainability in production and offers “50 green shades of natural cosmetics” as a solution. Depending on which phase the consumer is in, we have a solution in the form of packaging-free and solid cosmetics as well as in recyclable packaging, which can also be refilled as a refill package or at a refill station on sales days in our salon.

“In this way, both a conscious conservationist and the one who is just taking their first steps in this direction can find a solution with us.” Read more about Nurme’s steps towards more environmentally friendly production.

What does the future hold for us?

For those who haven’t heard the secret yet, in early 2022 we bought the former bread factory production building in Tapa, which has as much as 3,000 square meters of production space. This is, of course, so that we can grow vigorously and produce your favorite products more diligently. We are devoting this whole year and the next to setting up the production lines and putting the first 700 square meters into operation in Tapa. “Our lovely production farm has gotten too small for us, but part of the cosmetics production still remains there. After all, a separate building for the production of soaps was just built next to the farm, which produces 300,000 bars of soap every year,” says Marit.

For our part, we would like to thank all our customers who have supported Nurme’s activities over the years, as well as our entire Nurme family, without whose work and effort Nurme Natural Cosmetics would not exist. Marit, Luule, Jimmy and Märt – thank you for working hard for 13 years and creating a company we can all be proud of! Together, we keep moving forward to grow and develop together with our dear customers.

 

Take a look at the video introducing Nurme!

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