Sustainable body care brand Uni has entered its first retailer, Erewhon Market — the Los Angeles County luxury supermarket chain with a cult-like following.

Launched direct-to-consumer in February 2022 by tech entrepreneur Alexandra Keating, Uni might be present in all eight locations. After three years in development, following a $4 million seed investment (that features Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures), industry sources value Uni at $10 million.

Erewhon’s reusable glass bottle program inspired her and artistic director Marc Atlan as they developed the body care brand, when the Australian native first moved to L.A., Keating said. Using a reusable dispenser with sleek packaging, all Uni products are bottled in recycled aluminum, made to be repeatedly used and recycled.

“It gave us the arrogance to actually pursue that model,” she said. “When I spotted how seamless it was, I spotted that we could try this with Uni. And if people were, like with the milkman, bringing bottles back, then we could begin to shape that behavior as related to beauty and private care.”

About 38 percent of Uni shoppers are subscribers, returning empty bottles and receiving a package of latest goods every 60 days. (The brand developed a technology to trace returns, cleans and refills bottles.) Offering discounted prices to subscribers, products include a hydrating shampoo and conditioner, at $34 each, a $33 body wash and $43 body serum. The latter is Uni’s bestseller, followed by its $31 exfoliating hand wash.

“If you happen to have a look at who our customer is, they’re definitely Erewhon goers,” Keating said, sharing that buyers are typically 25 and older, living in major cities, “a bit of bit more affluent” and “very educated when it comes to ingredients.”

Uni utilizes sustainably sourced, reef-safe ingredients, a “Marine Complex” (mix of actives for hydration), in addition to bladderwrack seaweed to advertise cell turnover, Australian kakadu plum for vitamin C and caviar lime as a citric acid exfoliator. The brand has a give-back element, contributing 1 percent of online sales to coral restoration projects and is a participant within the United Nations’ Climate Neutral Now initiative — aimed to attain a climate neutral world by 2050.

“The sustainability factor and revolutionary approach to refills is what impressed us, we don’t have anything like that,” Maren Giuliano, Erewhon’s vp of health and wellness, told WWD in an announcement. “We also really appreciated the sleek design and aesthetics of the brand.”

Erewhon might be the primary to unveil Uni’s latest product, the Restoring Hand Wash, exclusively for the month of December. The product won’t be available on Weareuni.com until January. (More stock keeping units are coming next 12 months.)

Giuliano continued: “Our strategy is to proceed to be a spot of discovery in clean beauty and wellness. We also like partnering with [direct-to-consumer] brands and bringing them to life in store, Uni was an excellent example of a brand that aligned with our values when it comes to ingredients and sustainability and likewise offers something unique when it comes to the bathtub and body category.”

“I actually imagine in retail,” Keating said of future plans. “So, you’ll see Uni grow quite a bit over the subsequent two years in retail each within the U.S. and abroad.”

There’s also a b-to-b market, partnering with restaurants and hotels: “We’re very fortunate within the sense that single-use plastic bottles are being banned from hotels as of January next 12 months in California and that’s really changing the complete hotel industry.”

Keating sees Uni in “everyone’s home,” she added. “I’m quite an ambitious individual.”