Meet Brendan Murdock: Founder of Anatomē interview
BRENDAN MURDOCK
We spoke to Brendan Murdock, the founder of anatomē, who is passionate about the apothecaries of old that dispensed herbal remedies, potions and lotions to support health and wellbeing. Working with botanicals and essential oils for many years and through his creative passions and interest in food, perfume and skincare he had a deep desire to update and reinvent the apothecary for a new generation. This provided the inspiration for anatomē: a natural, holistic health and wellness brand that would provide the very best nutritional supplements, vitamins, therapeutic oils and expert advice to restore balance to our lives.
In this conversation with Brendan, we found out about how he started anatomē, where he finds inspiration and what he's excited to work on in the next few months.
Tell us about you and your background. What was the journey that led you to starting anatomē?
I’ve a varied background! I grew up in Ireland and came to England to attend University where I did a Finance degree, I think I did a couple of postgraduate courses in Law. Whilst I enjoyed my studies, I’m quite a creative person, so I found myself opening a restaurant on Hoxton square. It was an ambitious 110 seater restaurant CRU that explored niche wines alongside imaginative Mediterranean food. I took that experience and knowledge of the consumer, and created a barber concept called Murdock London. I created a grooming collection and unique barbering services that scaled internationally with our stores, wholesale and online. So I suppose anatomē now blends my experience - a love to discover and create new retail concepts, breaking new ground into wellness, but my knowledge of food, ingredients, skincare has really influenced and helped steer anatomē.
How has the brand evolved over time?
We started off with a pop up in Shoreditch a few years ago when the brand had a wider lense, with health drinks, lux fitness accessories and a café. This provided us with an excellent way to understand the brand's direction and where it would go. With these learnings, anatomē has been refined and evolved into a focused range of supplements, skincare and essential oils.
What inspires you and motivates you?
My curiosity in all things motivates me. Whether it’s my love of art, opera and theatre, literature, nature and cooking. Having a broad knowledge and real connections really impacts my creativity and overall motivation. I have to feel engaged with the world around me. London is constantly inspiring too, being around other people in this city helps push me forward and be more ambitious.
What have you worked on or achieved with anatomē that you are most proud of?
I think we are really pleased with the new store in Marylebone and all our fantastic wholesale partners. It's really great to see other brands wanting to celebrate anatomē as a brand, and of course support customers in their wellbeing.
From the journal to the Wellness Assessment, there’s useful information for everyone on the anatomē website. Why is this important to the brand to offer a wide range of resources?
Content, both visual and text based, is vital to the consumer so that they feel engaged and informed how to support their health and wellness. At their own leisure the customers can find the answers they need to make informed decisions on how best to sleep, support their immune health or simply relax and feel happier within oneself.
What does sustainability mean to you as a brand?
It's so important. We present our products for the most part in glass packaging, and in 2020 we introduced our new replenishment program that you can receive future orders in paper sachets rather than a glass jar of supplements each time. We are also working with charity partners including the Hospital Rooms, a mental health charity who introduce artwork to support with recovery in mental health departments. We also source our ingredients responsibly working with small producers around the world with our oils, teas and skin care. This brings the best sustainable ingredients to our customers, thus contributing to the sustaining of small farms and growers around the world who produce the ingredients for our essential oils and other products.
What would be your top tips to help encourage others to live more sustainably?
Be responsible in places that use excess and wasteful packaging, I think some notable high street brands aren’t working hard enough to remove plastics from their fruit and veg departments which I find incredulous. Supporting brands that are working hard to work with emerging producers for me is important to sustain local economies.
What are you most excited to work on over the next few months?
I’m writing our first anatomē book. I've been putting it off but now is the time to bring it to fruition and as we know, books take time to write and publish. More immediate is the launch of our first anatomē fragrance, a wellbeing perfume we’ll launch in the spring.
What piece of advice would you give to someone who is looking to set up their own company?
Be bold, brave and confident! It is simply so challenging, you have to be resilient and visualize clearly what type of brand/company you are creating, and stay true to that.
What do you look for when finding the perfect gift?
I think it has to show thought, personalize it to ensure that you can demonstrate that you thought about the person. Maybe an interesting card from a place that they love, alongside a beautifully wrapped gift.
What is your LITTLE FIND?
BONDI WASH's Dog Wash. My dog, Dodger, gets so muddy in the fields and this wash will surely recondition him.
Let’s have a little fun and FIND out about you...
Discover anatomē at A LITTLE FIND.
