PARIS — It is shaping up to be a busy year for Laboratoires Nuxe.
The French treatment and skin care brand will relaunch Tonific — a body-care and slimming line — in March, and it is eyeing international markets, including China, to build on its strong 2006 sales performance.
Nuxe’s wholesale volume spiked 23 percent to reach 49 million euros, or $62 million at average exchange, last year versus 2005, according to Aliza Jabes, the brand’s president. Of that, 75 percent was generated in France, where pharmacies are the brand’s main distribution channel. Exports generated the remaining business.
A foray into China is on the schedule for Nuxe, possibly this year. Elsewhere in Asia, the company’s products are already sold in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. In 2006, Nuxe opened 1,000 doors around the world, bringing its international door count to 3,000.
Domestically, Nuxe’s 2006 sales rose 20 percent year-on-year. There, growth was spurred by 400 additional points of sale, mainly pharmacies, which brought the company’s number of French doors to 4,000.
“French women have gradually realized over the past 10 to 15 years that they can find excellent beauty products in pharmacies and they don’t have to pay a fortune for them,” said Jabes. Nuxe has also benefited from the dynamism of the pharmacy channel across Europe.
“You see in many countries the same evolution as in France over the past 10 years, with a lot of pharmacy and parapharmacy openings,” said Jabes, adding she welcomes the increasing number of new natural brands. “The introduction of organic lines in pharmacies is a big trend, which means pharmacies are going to continue to be a main channel of distribution for skin care.”
While Jabes declined to reveal specifics, she said she is considering new spa ventures. Between 5 percent and 7 percent of Nuxe’s overall business last year was generated by its four spas, three in Paris and one at Club Med Peisey-Vallandry, in the French Alps. Jabes plans to grow the activity and maintain Nuxe spas’ high-end positioning by opening more in highly selective locations.
Nuxe drew on feedback from its spa clientele to upgrade its Tonific Minceur slimming treatment line, which first bowed in 2002.
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Jabes said clients at Nuxe spas want very technical and precise treatments with immediate results. However, at home they want to enhance results with simpler products and procedures. Set to relaunch in March under the Tonific moniker, the three-unit line comprises a 200-ml. tube of Soft-Skin Booster Body Scrub and a 200-ml. 24-hour Nutri-Hydrating Body Lotion both for 19.50 euros, or $25 at current exchange, and a 200-ml. jar of Intensive Firming Cream for 34.50 euros, or $45. Listed prices are for France.
New formula ingredients include litchi and rice powder, macadamia oil plus elder tree, almond tree and chestnut extracts.
While Jabes declined to reveal forecasts, industry sources estimate the line will generate 5 million euros, or $6.5 million at current exchange, at wholesale in its first year.