Health & Beauty Surplus: Inventory Type Guide

Health and beauty surplus is made by packaging, not by product. A shampoo in last year's bottle is the same shampoo, a body wash packed for a market that over-ordered is the same body wash, and a gift set that missed Christmas still holds the products it held in December. The formula has not changed. The artwork, the language or the occasion has moved on without it. This guide is written for manufacturers, brand owners, importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers holding haircare, skincare, oral care, bath and shower or personal care lines they are not going to sell through the channel they were bought for. The desk buys surplus FMCG outright, health and beauty included, so what follows is the buyer's side of it: what decides whether a load can move, and what to have ready before you list it.

How health and beauty surplus arises

Health and beauty sits inside the wider FMCG picture, and the FMCG inventory guide covers the common causes in general terms. In this category, most of them come back to the pack.

• A rebrand or new artwork. A brand refresh strands every unit in the old livery overnight, though the product inside is current.
• A reformulation or relaunch. "New and improved" leaves the previous formula behind, sound and sealed, with nowhere on the main shelf to go.
• Language variants. Stock packed for another market, or for several at once, that was over-ordered or never shipped.
• A discontinued size or a range review. A delisted variant, a travel size that did not take, or a pack size a retailer stopped ranging.
• Gift sets and promotional packs. Christmas sets, bonus-size bottles and banded multibuys are built for a window, and whatever is left when it closes is surplus.

None of these is a fault in the product, which is why this stream holds its value. What decides the sale is what the pack says and the state it is in.

The marks on the pack

Food runs on best-before and use-by dates. Cosmetics and toiletries run on their own law, and for selling surplus it comes down to what is printed on each pack. UK cosmetics law sets out the labelling, and the checks it asks of anyone who sells a product on are the checks a buyer will make before taking your stock.

Three things follow for a seller.

• Most lines carry no date that stops a sale. Products that keep for more than 30 months do not need a date at all. They show the open-jar mark instead, and that only starts counting when a customer opens the pack. That is why so much toiletry surplus can wait for the right buyer.
• A shorter-life line is the exception. Products that keep for 30 months or less must carry a best-used-before date, shown with the hourglass symbol or the words "best used before the end of". The law asks anyone selling a cosmetic on to check that the date has not passed, so unlike a food best-before, it is a hard stop. Flag these lines on the list and give the dates as printed, so they can be treated on their own.
• The batch code has to be there and readable. It is one of the things a seller-on must check is present, and it is how a recall or a withdrawal finds its stock. If a batch code has been cut off, scuffed away or covered by a sticker, say so.

Not everything in a health and beauty aisle is a cosmetic, and the exceptions run on other rules.

• Vitamins and food supplements are food in law, so they carry food dates and follow food rules. Best-before and use-by dates covers how those work.
• Medicines, meaning anything with a product licence (PL) number on the pack, sit under their own regime, with their own dates and licences. List them separately: they are checked line by line, not priced with the rest of the load.

For the household and cleaning side of the non-food aisle, selling out-of-date non-food FMCG covers what the dates on those lines mean.

Language variants and export

Stock packed for another market is one of the biggest sources of health and beauty surplus, and its route out depends on the label. UK rules require the quantity, any best-used-before date, the precautions for use and, where it is not obvious, the product's function to be given in English. A pack that carries those in English alongside other languages can be sold here like any other. One that does not usually finds its home in export, often back in the market it was packed for, where the same label is exactly what the shelf expects.

UK brands also travel well on their own, so export is not only a route for variants. The desk sells into export markets as well as at home, so tell us which languages are on each line and which market it was packed for, and the offer is made with every route in view.

Gift sets and promotional packs

A gift set is seasonal stock with ordinary products inside. The sleeve says Christmas, Mother's Day or Father's Day; the shower gel and the body lotion inside it say nothing of the kind. The value channel sells gift sets for months after the occasion, at a price that reflects the season it missed, so a pallet of sets in February is a normal piece of trade rather than a write-off.

What decides the price is whether the set is still a set. Complete, sealed sets in undamaged boxes sell as sets. Sets that have been opened, broken up or stripped of a component sell as loose products. Count the two separately.

Promotional packs work the same way. Bonus-size bottles, banded twin packs and price-marked packs were printed for a promotion, and a buyer has to be able to sell that exact pack, at the marked price where there is one. Flag them on the list, because they decide which buyers can take a load.

Tired outers and the state of the units

In this category the outer and the unit are two different questions, and a buyer prices them separately. A case with scuffed, stained or re-taped cartons and perfect units inside is still good stock; a clean case of leaking bottles is not. The list should say which you have.

• Outers. Count the damaged or tired cartons, and say whether the damage stops at the cardboard.
• Units. Caps, pumps, triggers and seals should be intact, and tubes and bottles unsplit. A leaker spoils the cases around it, so take leakers out before collection rather than leaving them for goods-in to find.
• Aerosols. Deodorants, hairsprays, dry shampoos and shaving foams are pressurised, and most carry a flammable propellant. They change how a load is stored and moved, so say how many there are, and set aside any that are dented.
• Heat and cold. Creams and lotions can separate if they get too warm or freeze, and aerosols do not belong near a heat source. Tell us how the stock has been stored, and whether the building holds a steady temperature.

What makes a health and beauty load sellable

• Sealed units and intact seals. Nothing opened, nothing tampered with, every cap and pump in place.
• Readable batch codes, read off the packs rather than the stock system, which knows when a pallet arrived but not what is printed on it.
• Dates inside the line, where a line has one. Shorter-life lines past their best-used-before date are out of the trade.
• Labelling that fits the market, or a clear note of which languages each variant carries and which market it was packed for.
• Provenance. Where the stock came from and how it reached you. Branded health and beauty attracts more questions about origin than most categories, and paperwork that answers them is what lets a buyer say yes.
• Nothing under recall or withdrawal. Any batch subject to a recall or a withdrawal is out of the trade entirely, however sound the rest of the load is.

Where health and beauty surplus goes

Health and beauty reaches more kinds of buyer than most surplus, because it is light for its value and most of it carries no date clock.

• Discount and variety retailers, who sell branded toiletries below the usual shelf price.
• Pharmacies and independent chemists, adding branded lines at a cost price that leaves them a margin.
• Online and marketplace sellers, for whom light cases and well-known brand names suit selling unit by unit.
• Exporters, who take language variants home and UK brands abroad.
• Wholesalers and cash-and-carry, supplying convenience stores and independents that buy by the case.

The desk sells into all of these, so a mixed load does not need splitting before it leaves your site. That happens after collection.

What to put on the list

• Brand and product, exactly as the pack words them, with the variant, shade or scent.
• Format and pack size: bottle, tube, aerosol, gift set or multipack, with units per case.
• Quantity, by case and by pallet.
• Batch codes, read off the packs.
• Dates: any best-used-before dates as printed, or a note that the line carries the open-jar mark instead.
• Languages on the pack, and the market each variant was packed for.
• Gift sets and promotional packs, flagged, with what each set contains and how many are complete.
• Aerosols, flagged and counted.
• Condition, with outers and units described separately and any leakers counted.
• Storage conditions and location, and how the pallets come out of the building.

What we buy sets out the health and beauty lines on the desk and the condition they can be in. Payment terms are agreed per deal and stated in the written offer, so you know them before you accept anything.

Next steps

1. Separate sealed, sound stock from anything opened, leaking, past a best-used-before date or under recall, and count each group.
2. Read the batch codes and any dates off the packs, and flag the language variants, gift sets, promotional packs and aerosols.
3. Get a stock offer with formats, quantities, batch codes and location. We aim to come back with a written offer within 24 hours of the list landing.
4. Read the written offer, ask about anything unclear, then accept it or walk away.

Holding health and beauty stock and unsure whether its labels would let it sell here? Ask the desk; the brand, the languages on the pack and a rough quantity is enough for a first read.