Susie Ma, the founder of Tropic Skincare and a finalist on The Apprentice, has paid herself a £2m dividend after profits at the beauty brand rose by 31 per cent to £11.4m, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
The accounts, which cover the company’s 2025 trading year, also show that the Croydon-based business launched in the US in August, its first move into an overseas market.
Revenue rose 13 per cent to £76.7m last year, the accounts show. It is the second consecutive year in which the company has reported profit growth of more than 30 per cent.
Buyback from Lord Sugar
The results follow Ma’s decision in 2023 to buy back the 50 per cent stake she sold to Lord Sugar for £200,000 after appearing on the BBC programme in 2011. The terms of that deal were not disclosed.
Since the buyback, Tropic has paid out £18.2m in dividends in a series of tranches, the last of which completed in January. Business Matters reported last year on the earlier dividend payments to Ma following Sugar’s exit.
Ma has described the deal with Sugar as “a massive weight off my shoulders”, adding: “It’s an incredible feeling; a feeling of freedom.”
Ma, 37, founded the company in 2004 at the age of 15 and began by selling body scrubs at Greenwich Market in London. In a 2019 interview with Business Matters, she said she had started the business after moving to London from Australia, making natural body scrubs from a family recipe. She said then that the company’s mission was to “help create a healthier, greener, more empowered world”.
Tropic makes almost all of its creams and lotions fresh each day at its own factory. The company is registered at Companies House as Tropic Skincare Limited, incorporated on 9 November 2011, with its registered office in Croydon.
She appeared this year as a guest panellist on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, having been named alongside Refy co-founder Jenna Meek as one of the programme’s guest dragons for 2026.
Ambassador model and US expansion
Tropic sells directly through its website and through more than 20,000 part-time “ambassadors”. The ambassadors receive support and a website, and earn commission of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent on their sales.
Ambassadors pay £198 for a starter kit of products but pay no ongoing fees.
In her report in the accounts, Ma said the US launch marked “the beginning of its expansion into North America and a further step in its international growth strategy”.
She said she expected revenue and profit to rise this year, helped by a series of initiatives intended to improve the efficiency of the company’s operations.
The business, which has a team of 264 people, distributes 10 per cent of its profits to staff in bonuses.
Charitable giving
Ma has also pledged to give 10 per cent of the company’s profits to good causes each year.
Tropic increased its donations last year to United World Schools, a charity that builds schools and provides education in poorer countries. Tropic has funded five schools in Nepal, as well as schools in Madagascar.
Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College's journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel's nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
