Ben Bennett Unveils New Brand Incubator, The Center

Beauty industry veteran Ben Bennett has founded a new company. Los Angeles-based The Center is a “new type of beauty incubator,” Bennett told WWD, under which he will both develop brands and invest in up-and-comers in the beauty and wellness categories. Bennett is known as the cofounder of Hatchbeauty, which under his direction created lines for hairstylist Orlando Pita and makeup artist Kristofer Buckle, as well as private label brands for retailers, including a clean makeup and skin-care line for Walmart called Found. The Center’s business model is split into two functions — brand incubation and brand acceleration under The Center Holdings, the company’s investment arm. Thus far, The Center Holdings has invested in four brands — clean makeup brand Kosas, clean fragrance line Ellis Brooklyn, sustainable skin-care brand Circumference, and Five Suns Foods, which sells an Andean plant-based protein called chocho. Bennett has a team of 13 people, some of whom are executives who worked under him at Hatchbeauty, working at The Center’s headquarters at 9200 Sunset in West Hollywood, in an old office space once inhabited by The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc, and plans to add up to 10 employees this year. “The goal is to not only incubate our own brands,

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