Since joining Faithful to Nature, Paul Robinson FCCA has helped to spearhead the ethical retailer’s rapid growth. Together with his team of nine, he is enabling the brand’s evolution from a niche web platform to an omnichannel retailer with a national presence.
The business already has 14 physical stores across South Africa and is targeting a total of 19 by the end of the year. It also runs eight concession stores in partnership with major retail chain Pick n Pay and has two distribution facilities.
‘Our goal is a world where products don’t harm us or our planet’
‘Lots of things are changing, so providing financial support to the business as it changes is super critical,’ explains Robinson, who has been head of finance at Faithful to Nature since 2018. ‘A big part of my day-to-day work is understanding what our financial position is, understanding what our cash requirements are, and managing our working capital.
‘It’s about making sure that we’re ready for that next phase of growth and that we futureproof ourselves.’
Purpose-driven
Launched as an online business by green entrepreneur Robyn Smith in 2007, Faithful to Nature sells a wide range of natural and organic food, beauty, home and lifestyle products – from breakfast cereals to silk pillowcases. It is now owned by South African investment company Silvertreebrands.
Robinson joined the company after meeting shareholders and being impressed with their purpose-driven approach to business. ‘The company’s purpose is to realise a world where the products we consume don’t harm us, our planet or our communities,’ he explains. ‘That just resonated with me.’
It continues to resonate. ‘It’s an exciting space,’ he says. ‘The natural organic health and wellness industry in South Africa is very young compared with more mature markets but it’s also becoming more mainstream, so we’re always having to adapt.’
Growth story
Retail faces different financial challenges, Robinson points out. ‘With retail, you’re selling straightaway, so you’re collecting your cash as you sell. There’s no cash pressure from a debtor book.
‘But where your working capital management comes in is around your inventory holding and your payable days, and making sure those things are managed carefully.’
After arriving at Faithful to Nature, Robinson established robust cash and payables controls and reviewed the company’s margin structure to identify opportunities for profit maximisation. This he achieved through negotiating better prices with suppliers. He also oversaw the migration to a new enterprise resource planning system, which improved reporting and transparency and allowed the business to cope with an explosion in sales when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. ‘We grew 70% overnight,’ he recalls.
Sustainability
The business currently enjoys a three-year revenue compound annual growth rate of around 33%, and Robinson believes the business is approximately 10 times bigger than when he started.
Can that kind of performance be sustained? Robinson thinks so, but the question is whether it can be delivered sustainably.
‘It’s about having the operational and financial capacity to support growth’
‘It depends on disciplined execution, healthy margins and cash generation, and ensuring that the business has the operational and financial capacity to support the growth,’ he says. ‘Those areas sit directly within my scope, both through the responsible and sustainable deployment of capital and by helping the wider business execute the different components of our strategy.’
The workforce has grown too over that time, from 40 employees to 200. Faithful to Nature has been running physical stores since 2021, when it also became the first South African retailer to win B Corp certification for its high social and environmental standards.
‘Our strategy is to make this a sustainable business that is resilient in the long term, so we don’t just support our shareholders, but also our people, communities and suppliers,’ Robinson explains. ‘We’re a health and wellness retailer, but we have to be sustainable from a financial point of view to do all that.’
Robinson pays particular tribute to co-CEO Luisa Tropartz, who played a key role in improving margin structure when she was head of commercial and was also instrumental in achieving B Corp certification.
‘AI has taken away the need for me to read a 150-page lease’
AI adoption
One way that Faithful to Nature is adapting is through the adoption of AI technologies. Its tech and data team were early adopters, without whom, Robinson says, the organisation wouldn’t have such an embedded AI culture. It uses AI extensively across the business to track global trends and source new products, as well as offering recommendations to customers.
Robinson has found AI a massive time-saver. He uses Microsoft Copilot to build reports and agentic AI to analyse leases for new stores and to flag potential risks. ‘It’s taken away the need for me to read a 150-page lease,’ he says. ‘It does a first review and then I can focus on the key issues associated with that lease.’
Career journey
There have been many twists and turns to Robinson’s career journey to date. Due to family circumstances, he found himself homeless at 16 and supporting himself while he finished high school. To build funds, he delayed going to university until he was 23 and studied online with the University of South Africa, juggling an accounting finance degree while working in hospitality.
That spell of homelessness made a difference to him – and to others. ‘It has really pushed me to find development opportunities within my team and also in the larger organisation. Backgrounds and education often don’t tell the full story, and there are gems out there needing to be found, given an opportunity and supported.’
‘It’s very difficult to move into a senior role without a formal qualification’
Articles with a small audit firm in Cape Town came after graduation, followed by a spell at a distribution business. A move to London followed, and work as a revenue analyst with US media company Discovery Communications, then stints with Indian investment company Religare, UK-based banks Lloyds and RBS, and clearing house LCH.Clearnet.
While in London, he studied for the ACCA qualification. ‘In the UK, it is very difficult to move into a more senior role without a formal qualification, and the ACCA qualification is transferable to any country, so it’s also helped me to find new opportunities in South Africa.’
In 2013, he returned to South Africa and a job as finance manager with Southern Africa Master Distributors, a vendor of garage forecourt equipment, before taking up his current role with Faithful to Nature.
Staying Faithful
So what’s next for Robinson? ‘Where next for me is how do we keep building Faithful to Nature,’ he says. ‘It’s how do we keep changing and how do we keep educating customers about what health and wellness should truly mean.
‘For me, the business growth journey with the company has been fantastic, and it’s not a train I want to get off any time soon.’
The CV
2018–present
Head of finance, Faithful to Nature, Cape Town
2017–18
Financial manager, Universal Footwear, Cape Town
2014–17
Finance manager, Southern Africa Master Distributors, Cape Town
2003–13
Series of financial management roles in Cape Town and then London
