From Behind a Hurghada Pharmacy Counter to Europe's Safety Files: How TNG Built a 130-Product Cosmetics Brand

A cosmetics company that now sells more than 130 products and is preparing safety files for the European market started behind a pharmacy counter in Hurghada about eight years ago, according to a profile in Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The founder, pharmacist George Ibtihaj, was dealing daily with customers looking for skin and hair care products and listening to what they said about quality, prices and whether the products suited them. TNG began manufacturing cosmetics in 2018, and its portfolio has since grown to more than 130 products across several brands, with an increasing push into markets outside Egypt.

'Direct contact with the consumer taught me that success in this sector does not start with advertising, but with the product itself,' Ibtihaj told the paper. 'A consumer may buy a product once because of the marketing, but will only come back to it if they find real quality and a consistent standard.'

The company's brands include Orgakera and Lotus, alongside Karismooth and Bestser, spanning skin, hair and body care, oils, massage products and sun protection. Orgakera covers skin, hair and body care, while Lotus leans heavily on natural ingredients and oils.

Moving outside Egypt shifted the problem from product and marketing to regulatory paperwork. The European market requires a Cosmetic Product Safety Report, or CPSR, as part of the safety file for a cosmetic sold there, and TNG says it is preparing and completing CPSRs for a large number of products across several of its brands rather than for a single line.

'The CPSR is not a piece of paper we use in publicity,' Ibtihaj said. 'When we aim to put a product into Europe, the safety report and its technical file are part of the requirements for entering that market.'

The company was founded about two years before the pandemic and, like other manufacturers, went through successive waves of rising raw material, packaging and shipping costs and currency swings, with holding quality while controlling cost among its hardest problems.

The account is the company's own, given to Al-Masry Al-Youm. The report carries no revenue or export figures, does not say where the products are manufactured, and names no European country where they are on sale or when they are expected to be.