NEW YORK — Despite the death last year of Yves Rocher, the company that bears his name is furthering his vision of creating a global firm with the opening of its first franchise and first store in Western Canada.
Growth plans aren’t stopping there with Yves Rocher eyeing locales in the U.S. within the next year.
Rocher, who died in December at the age of 79, expanded the botanical beauty brand across Europe in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Yves Rocher was one of the first cosmetics companies to enter Russia in the early Nineties. Now, under the direction of Rocher’s grandson, Bris Rocher, the company also operates in India and several African countries and is zeroing in on Japan, Brazil, Canada and the U.S. All told, the products are sold in more than 80 countries.
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Last year, Yves Rocher announced plans to use franchising as a growth model for North America featuring a new store design called Atelier of Botanical Beauty, which is expected to produce sales that are 15 percent higher than traditional stores.
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The goal of opening franchised Atelier units comes to fruition June 1 when a 684-square-foot store bows in the West Edmonton Mall, North America’s largest mall and the fifth largest in the world. “We are incredibly excited for the brand and our franchise because this represents a real milestone for Yves Rocher global and a real opportunity for Oksana Pachine and her partner Anna Stsibaylo,” said Rene Desmarais, chief executive officer of Yves Rocher North America, of the franchise owners.
The franchise store opening also comes during the 50th anniversary of Yves Rocher, which has sales exceeding $3.2 billion. To herald the opening, Yves Rocher will blitz current internet and catalogue consumers. “And the store will be very visible and our message will be communicated well because it is enclosed in glass. We are going to make a huge impact with this 360-degree effect,” said Christina Hane, director of communications.
Another store will open in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in September and Hane said there is interest for franchise units across Canada and the U.S. “We will be opening franchising there [U.S.] by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012,” she said. Yves Rocher did test the waters out with a store in King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania in 2003, which has since been shuttered. Industry experts think the timing could be good since shoppers are returning to stores, looking for something different and are intrigued by botanicals.
Yves Rocher is the number-one logo in sales and volume in France. However, the name was lesser known in Canada, especially the western region. Yves Rocher had been running a direct mail business in Canada since the mid-Eighties and a store network of more than 70 units, as well as internet sales. However, while most units in the countries where Yves Rocher operates are franchised, the firm made its initial foray into Canada with company-owned units so franchisors would feel confident with the format. The store features unique fixtures such as a replica of the table at which Yves Rocher invented products, as well as a zone within the layout where products are grouped by topics such as “feel good” or “radiate beauty.”
Yves Rocher continues to launch cutting-edge products such as a new antiaging line called Sérum Végétal3. Eight years in the making, the company holds three patents on the apple oligosides (found in the pectin) which correspond to three major areas of skin care for Yves Rocher: radiance and smoothing cohesion, antiwrinkle and firmness and skin-soothing. The company also recently won a Canadian FiFi Award for Naturelle, a 90 percent natural fragrance.
Yves Rocher executives said the company’s business hasn’t been as hard hit during tough times as some competitors. “We held on very well, especially since we have a price point people are looking for,” said Hane.