Sales Director Europe Chantal Sanders on Australian haircare brand O&M’s first push into Swedish retail. “I think it’s a highly informed, discerning market where consumers and professionals prioritise sustainability, transparency, performance, and craft, creating strong opportunities for purpose-led brands.”

Conscious Australian professional haircare brand just presented its first-ever pop-up activation in Europe, at the Nordiska Kompaniet department store in Stockholm.

– We launched in Sweden over ten years ago and have since built a strong, salon-exclusive presence across some of the country’s most premium salons, she says. The pop-up allowed stylists, media, and consumers to experience the products firsthand and connect with the brand in a tangible way. For us, activations like this are about meaningful connection and brand storytelling, creating moments for dialogue and emotional engagement, and serving as strategic touchpoints that enrich the brand journey rather than simply extend reach.

In the presentation of the pop-up, you highlighted the importance of craft for your Swedish audience. Can you elaborate?

– Swedish consumers value thoughtful design, technical skill, and honest performance, and that shows in how they approach haircare. They’re spending more per visit on specialist services like colour, repair, and scalp care, with a strong ‘skincare-for-hair’ mindset driven by common needs around dryness, damage, and sensitive scalps from the Nordic climate. 

– Craft here isn’t just about results, it’s about personalised consultations, stylist expertise, and integrity in the process. O&M was born in a salon, created by hairdressers for hairdressers, and remaining salon-exclusive reinforces that focus on professional artistry, something the Swedish premium consumer genuinely values. For O&M, supporting the professional community isn’t just important to us; it’s foundational.

What’s your general view of the Swedish market?

– I think Sweden is a highly informed, discerning market where consumers and professionals prioritise sustainability, transparency, performance, and craft, creating strong opportunities for purpose-led brands. At the same time, a fragmented salon landscape, rising costs, stylist shortages, price sensitivity, and grey-market discounting make protecting premium value challenging, which is why our salon-exclusive model matters in reinforcing professional credibility and personalised, craft-led results. Expectations are high, but brands that invest in education, relationships, and long-term value can thrive in Sweden’s refined, conscious, innovation-friendly beauty culture.

In your communication, you state that you believe in ‘clean, kind, responsible haircare.’ Using ‘clean’ as a term is not so widespread here. What’s your view on using it?

– Today, ‘clean’ has evolved from a niche buzzword into a broad consumer expectation, but without a single universal definition. For us, it’s less about marketing labels and more about thoughtful formulation, proven performance, and ethical responsibility. Consumers now expect brands to balance what’s left out with what actually works, supported by transparency around ingredients, sustainability, and impact. That’s why we see clean as a reflection of intention and integrity, delivering real results without compromise. We believe transparency is essential, not optional: being clear about what our products are formulated without, just as importantly as what they deliver. In an increasingly complex landscape, honesty and clarity aren’t differentiators; they’re fundamentals.

What other market tendencies do you see?

– A clear shift toward performance-led, education-driven colour and care, with clients investing more in personalised colour, bond repair, and scalp health, making stylist expertise more important than ever. Professional colour is becoming more intentional, with hair integrity and technical precision now expected as standard, while growing health awareness is accelerating demand for cleaner colour and gentler formulations that support long-term hair and scalp wellbeing, and the consumer is ready. 

So now, what’s next for O&M?

– This year is an exciting one for O&M as we deepen our support for professional communities, accelerate innovation in colour and care, and continue to expand globally, with a strong focus on the US, while strengthening our presence across Europe and our home market in Australia, says Sanders. We’ve invested heavily in innovation, and you’ll also see the brand come to life through our first Made For Originals festival in Europe later this year, an immersive, education-led celebration of craft, creativity, and our global community, all driven by intentional growth that elevates both the professional and end-user experience.