If Simply Bee were a hive, Helena van der Westhuizen would surely be the queen – but not of the insect variety that spends its day feeding on royal jelly and laying eggs. No, this matriarch is more like a worker bee who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.
Even though the Simply Bee shop, Bee Observation Centre, coffee shop, decor shop and spa – all next door to each other in Church Street – had significantly fewer visitors than usual last year, their online sales increased by a whopping 600%. And the business had its best year to date. Still, Helena says modestly, it’s probably because more people turned to online shopping. “And obviously it helps if you make products that get used up and have to be replenished.”
Despite these record sales, Helena still “had way too much time during lockdown to think and experiment”. That’s how she quietly developed a new vegan skin-care range, called Hugo Apothecary, which is already available online.
