in the infancy of their brand, I think Alya had only been around for four months at that stage, and obviously in the pureplay online channel.  There were retailers knocking on their door and they didn’t have experience in that side of the business, so [they] got in contact with us through Bondi Sands, who we worked with for 10 years, and we started up a conversation.  We ended up representing them as their distributor for the last four years, and for us the fit as a distributor and then the fit as an acquisition for our business is one and the same, but it has developed beyond that.  In any brand that we look at [acquiring], we’re looking at brands that have delivered on a certain need for customers, or are going to disrupt a category, or are filling a space that doesn’t exist at that point in time.  That’s what really appealed to us about Alya in the beginning. It’s an Australian brand, using Australian Pink Clay, and had a huge amount of excitement around it online and from the retail channel. And that’s all still relevant today, but what’s changed is that we now have an understanding of what it could add to our business from a digital perspective.  We all know that omnichannel is the way of the future, so it’s helped us have some more insight into what’s required to be successful in that online space, as well as the export market as well. IR: Can you talk to me a bit about those digital lessons you learned? AG: They have a huge audience out there, which is very engaged and has a real sense of community.  They want to support the brand, want to get to know the founders and understand their journey, and, as I said, we’re going through that learning process as well, and having a brand at that scale, we’re hoping we can learn how to replicate that success across other brands that we own. We saw that as a gap within our business, so we’re bringing some of that expertise along.  We’re still involved with Manny Barbas, the co-founder of Alya, as well as taking this opportunity to build out our own in-house digital team as well. IR: What do you think the next year looks like for Alya?  AG: What we saw that we can add to the brand was an injection of capital, to be able to support the brand, and we feel that it’s been a little unloved as of late and we want to change that. We want to put in a bit of financial support to be able to do that.  For me, it’s about making sure we’ve got our market humming well in Australia, and also develop the UK and Canadian arms of the brand. Alya this year went into Superdrug in the UK, which is something that we want to work harder and more cohesively with the buyer in the UK, as well as establish the brand in the online market in the UK. They started, but had to pull back a bit, so we want to get back in there and create that excitement again.  IR: What are the plans for Frostbland more generally next year? AG: For us, we’ve been looking for acquisitions. It’s been part of our strategic plans for a number of years now, it’s been a long time since we last acquired a brand. I think the last time was almost 25 years ago, when the business bought the licence for Taboo Fragrance.  I wouldn’t say we’ve been looking for more acquisitions that entire time, but we’re definitely looking at how we can build up and diversify our operations.  Our core business is distribution, and I think we do that really well, but they say in distribution, ‘If you’re doing really well, you lose a brand, and if you’re doing really poorly, you lose a brand.’  When you do a really good job, a brand usually ends up getting sold to a private equity firm or a multinational. So by acquiring brands ourselves we get to invest in them, and then keep hold of that investment. IR: We’ve definitely seen the skincare category boom throughout the last few years. How do you think that’s benefited Alya, and what does that look like moving forwards? AG: I think there are certain treatments that customers have become accustomed to throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.  There are some that they are going to continue to do at home, and do some other ones at more professional venues, or they may fill the gap in-between. For example, if you’re getting a facial every month, you may stretch that out to every few months, and do some at home yourself in the meantime.  I think that’s why we’re starting to see more salon-style treatments in more consumer-facing, retail-ready packages, creating that ease of use so you can do them at home.  I think there’s always going to be room for the professional beauty market – sometimes people just like to be pampered, and we don’t always want to do it ourselves. The beauty of beauty is that feel-good factor, so even if things are happening in the world, be it Covid-19, or a recession, it’s pretty resilient. There’s an affordable feel-good factor that people can indulge in.