L'Oreal buys out partner.
by Hession, Colin
L'Oreal has bought out its partner, the catalog expert, 3
Suisses International, to become the sole owner of the direct sales
cosmetics retailer, Le Club des Createurs de Beaute. Founded in 1987,
this direct sales operation has business in France, Belgium, Germany and
Japan via websites and catalogs (see www.ccb.paris.fr) and in 2007 had
sales of 111 million [euro], claiming some five million individual
customers worldwide.
The strategic point of interest here is L'Oreal's policy
of "covering the water-front;" i.e., making sure that the
company is represented across all the channels where beauty products are
sold to consumers. Hence its purchase of Kiehl's, and more
recently, of The Body Shop. But no entry in spas ... yet?
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