News Coverage
Potion Has Sunny Forecast
Cocoa's Ocean Potion sun care products making impact on market
Published September 28, 2008
Bill Moss, golfing 10 years ago in Bonita Springs, had run out of Coppertone sunscreen when he stumbled upon a bottle of something called Ocean Potion in the pro shop.
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It was Moss's "eureka" moment, because the lotion worked well and didn't make his face break out like other sunscreens did.
The Navy veteran sent bottles to his service buddies in Hawaii and Guam, and they also raved about the product, he said.
"I use it all the time now," he said.
What Moss didn't realize at the time was that he had purchased a product made by a local company.
And while Moss may have come across Ocean Potion by accident, Cocoa-based Sun and Skin Care Research Inc., the 20-year-old company behind the Ocean Potion brand, has set upon a more purposeful and aggressive course to get itself on par with some of the top names in the sunscreen business.
Sun and Skin Care Research Inc. hopes to become a sponsor of the national U.S. Lifesaving Association, which gathers this November in Cocoa Beach for its annual meeting. Getting thousands of lifeguards across the United States slathering on Ocean Potion products could only be good for recognition and business, company officials believe.
A deal takes effect this year between the company and the Southeast Region of the USLA.
Also, each year there are new and dire warnings about the dangers of skin cancer and how best to prevent it -- short of staying out of the sun altogether. Ocean Potion wants to make sure consumers, and especially younger consumers who would be customers for years to come, know about its products.
Dermatologists note most of the serious skin damage from the sun happens before people are 25.
"Ocean Potion is a brand that was originally identified in the surf industry and targets the early user of sun-care products," said Sun and Skin Care Research founder and president Gary DeAngelo, a former commercial Realtor who started making skin lotions out of his Virginia Beach house in the 1980s.
Now sold at hundreds of surf shops and beach retailers across the United States, as well as Wal-Mart, Ocean Potion ranks No. 7 in the United States in terms of sales, DeAngelo said.
Coppertone, Banana Boat/Hawaiian Tropic and Neutrogena are the industry leaders in what Market Trends research calls a more than $1 billion industry. That includes sunscreens, suntan oils, sunless tan and after tan products and well as lip care.
Strategic purchases
Last month, DeAngelo upped the ante for his company by purchasing the No-Ad Suncare trademark for an undisclosed amount. Sun and Skin now manufacturers and distributes No-Ad from its nondescript, 100,000-square-foot headquarters and facility at 851 Greensboro Road in Cocoa, where it also makes its 36 Ocean Potion products, ranging from hand lotions to sunscreen to after-sun gels.
No-Ad is a well-known sunscreen product that was first introduced in the early 1960s and built its franchise by offering double the product volume for about the same cost as other national brands. The No-Ad maximum SPF 45 sunscreen is listed by Consumer Reports as one of its Best Buys for value in overall performance score.
"The No-Ad brand is one of the oldest sun care brands in existence, dating back to 1963," DeAngelo said, noting the brand's loyal customer base. "Only the Coppertone brand has been around as long."
DeAngelo plans to use the No-Ad distribution channels to also push Ocean Potion, and vice-versa. He doesn't see the products competing.
"They are two distinctively different brands and appeal to different customers," DeAngelo said. "No-Ad is for the shopper looking for value. Ocean Potion is positioned as a young, lifestyle brand."
Ocean Potion recorded $28 million in wholesale sales this year. With the addition of No-Ad, the company's wholesale sales are expected to reach $50 million.
The road back home
After creating his first Ocean Potion product in Virginia Beach, DeAngelo moved his company to Myrtle Beach, hoping to entice the tourism-heavy community into using his products. But with family in Brevard, he eventually opened a small headquarters in Suntree and began creating buzz with the blue, orange and white Ocean Potion logo on vans and Chrysler PT Cruisers driving around the area.
Probably the company's biggest coup came in 1991 when a local Wal-Mart agreed to sell one Ocean Potion product. Today, the world's largest retailer has 14 Ocean Potion products on its shelves.
"Between national regional programs, our products are available in hundreds of retailers all around the country," DeAngelo said.
Another way DeAngelo is getting the word out about Ocean Potion is by upping the company's profile. The year he began sponsoring the Southeast Region of the United States Lifesaving Association -- a 1,200-member organization that represents lifeguards throughout most of Florida, as well as in Alabama, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
That means as lifeguards watch over the beaches, they will be using Ocean Potion., said Joe McManus, regional president of the U.S. Lifesaving Association.
McManus said he will work to convince the national Lifesaving Association to officially endorse Ocean Potion when the organization holds its annual meeting in Cocoa Beach this November.
Sunscreen efficacy
All of this news for DeAngelo and Sun and Skin Care Research comes after the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group -- a non-profit group that says it is focused on consumer advocacy, released a scathing review of leading sunscreen brands that found 85 percent of the top-selling sunscreens with an SPF rating of 15 or more were potentially unsafe or ineffective.
It called on the Food and Drug Administration to finalize safety standards it initially promised in 1978.
"We've been waiting 30 years for the FDA to come up with adequate safety standards, and we're still waiting," said Jane Houlihan, the Environmental Working Group's vice president of research.
Essentially sun block is a barrier between the skin and the sun that can be physical, chemical or both. Sunscreens consist of chemicals that can absorb specific wavelengths of the sun's spectrum. Physical protectors, such as zinc oxide, reflect the sun's harmful rays, while chemical protectors, such as Parsol 1789, absorb them.
The Personal Care Products Council, an industry trade group, criticized the Environmental Working Group's report and research, as did some scientists not affiliated with the industry.
DeAngelo said Ocean Potion wasn't one of the products tested by the Environmental Working Group but he is well aware of the controversy. Ocean Potion products contain Parsol 1789, as well as a propriety product called Solaplex, which makes the Parsol last longer when exposed to ultraviolet rays.
