Yves Rocher Announces Franchise Opportunity In Canada

Yves Rocher Announces Canadian Franchise Opportunity

Friday July 10th, 2009---- Yves Rocher, The Creator Of Botanical Beauty announced today that it is providing Canadians with the opportunity to purchase a store franchise from the global beauty leader. “This is great news for Canadians because aside from a few tests in the early 80’s all of our stores in Canada have been corporate. We want to give Canadians the chance to benefit from a brand that has a 50 year history, absolutely superb products and incredible spa services,” says René Desmarais, CEO of Yves Rocher North America Inc. This follows the announcement made a little more than a month ago that the company was introducing a new brand image, logo and store concept called the Atelier of Botanical Beauty.

In the 80 countries Yves Rocher is present, roughly 75% of its stores are either franchises or run by agents. In France, it is one of the most popular cosmetics franchises with 550 stores. “Because the brand was not as well known in Canada, we wanted to grow it ourselves first and ensure the success of our stores before providing Canadians with the chance to purchase a franchise,” says Stéphane Duval, Director, Stores, North America. Duval came to Canada a year and a half ago from Italy where he also implemented the franchise strategy.

Yves Rocher has been in Canada since the mid-eighties and Canadians can purchase its products via catalogue and the Internet across the country and through stores in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. The company wants to expand its stores from Newfoundland to British Columbia by offering them up as franchises. “So many Canadians love to buy our products through our catalogue and the Internet site but our stores have the added benefits of our beauty consultants who provide expert advice and of the spa cabins which offer a variety of services such as facials, massages, manicures and pedicures at an extremely competitive price,” says Duval. “In fact we are the #1 spa-service provider in Europe.” The services include such specialized treatments as a 75 minute anti-ageing facial for roughly $80 and a 30 minute revitalizing body massage for roughly $30. These price points reflect the company’s product prices as well, which are extremely reasonable for their quality. “Because we grow many of the plants in our products and manufacture them ourselves we don’t have additional mark-ups to worry about when selling them to the end customer,” says Desmarais. “Most people don’t know that all our products are created from plants and between 25%-30% of the plants we use are from our own organically-harvested fields in La Gacilly, France,” adds Desmarais.

Yves Rocher is known world-wide as a highly specialized direct marketing company, which contributes to its success in all three of its sales channels. “When you purchase an Yves Rocher franchise you always benefit from tremendous corporate support such as marketing and communications tools, training and data sharing. Customers who sign up to our rewards program receive between 12 to15 special offers a year with additional discounts, free products, gifts and of course our expert beauty advice. On average between 18%-30% of customers come back with their offer,” says Duval. “That’s on top of walk-in customers,” he adds. In Canada, more than 80% of Yves Rocher store customers have signed up to the rewards program.

All franchises will be in the new Atelier of Botanical Beauty concept. This concept has an objective of generating 15% more in sales versus the new concept. In France, where the Atelier has been implemented in several test stores since the end of 2008, it is generating an average +20% increase, and here in Canada, the first Atelier, which opened at the Montreal Eaton Centre at the end of May, is maintaining a +35% increase in sales versus last year.