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.
