Yves Rocher

A. The main facts about the activities of the company

It has been 50 years this year that the brand Yves Rocher, founder of the Group, lives by and for the Nature.
The origin of this brand started in 1959 when Mister Yves Rocher elaborated his first cream made by the plants in his village of La Gacilly in Brittany (Bretagne). His first objective was to make the beauty by plants accessible to all the women.
Yves Rocher joins in the sector of the cosmetic and is the first brand of cosmetic in France, with a market share on the market of cosmetics of 8 %, according to the Kantar Panel.

Yves Rocher is a familial brand, owned at 75% by the family: the director is Bris Rocher, the son of Yves Rocher who died in December 2009.
Another very important thing about this brand is that she has a unique economic model; they manage the entire step from production to distribution. Yves Rocher is harvester, manufacturer and harvester. And they use 4 channels of distribution; mailings, stores sales, internet and direct sales.

The Brand has 800 references and produces 150 products per year. Yves Rocher offers a large range of products: Make-up, Perfumes, Solar products, Body and Face care, Men?s care, Food supplement, and a new Eco-Hotel Spa. Yves Rocher also proposes its services thanks to its beauty salon.

B. The ethical challenges this company is addressing

Yves Rocher has a cosmetic unique. They have as their only inspiration the force of the nature, their only objective is the efficacy, their only exigency is the security, and their vocation is the beauty for all the women.

Regarding the values of the brand, the first concern of Yves Rocher is the naturalness and integrity of their products developed by the power of plants and the greatness of the nature. Every product is developed using a plant molecule, but the research on the plant is used according to ?La Charte Plante Yves Rocher? that strictly regulates its research and supply: one species is used only if neither the plant nor its future and its environment are threatened.

The third concern is the protection of the customers? health and welfare. Thereby, Yves Rocher scientists are working hardly and carefully in order to ensure the best quality of the products suggested.
Yves Rocher doesn?t do any tests on animals since 1989. No animal ingredients enter in the production (except the honey). In 2009 Yves Rocher has been labeled on the list One voice, reference in the matter of refusal of animal suffering.

Finally, our company is doing the best to enforce affordable prices in order to be accessible for everybody.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it

This brand is not just a cosmetic brand. It?s a brand deeply involved for the sustainable development and the protection of the environment since its creation in 1959. The aim of Mister Yves Rocher when he created that brand was to make the beauty accessible to all, but also make his little village in Brittany prosper. That?s what he did; the hectares of plants for the harvest and the production sites of Yves Rocher are situated in his own village in La Gacilly in Brittany, which permitted to give jobs to a lot of people from this area.

Concerning the sustainable development, the brand has 2 main foundations. The first one is ?Plantons pour la plan?te? that has for objectives to plant 50 millions of trees all over the world. They have ambassadors like Kofy Annan 7th president of the ONU, Serge Orru, president of WWF France, or Wangari Mathai, Nobel price of peace in 2004. They already planted more than 14 millions of trees in a lot of countries like Brazil, India, Senegal ? This foundation is financed in a part by the selling of some famous products like shampoos or face cr?mes: for one product bought, one tree is planted.

They also have another foundation; ?Terre de femmes?. For Yves Rocher, if an action is useful for nature, down to home or around the world, small or large, she deserves interest, and also perhaps the Prize Women of the Earth.
The only condition required is that a woman is the instigator and that she is bringing the project.

Winners of the Women of the Earth conduct operations that contribute to the preservation of the plant world and improving the environment while working for the well-being of the community.

Projects that have emerged under their leadership are for example the Protection the pines in Poland, set up solar cookers in Madagascar, defend the great apes in Gabon, labeling environmental nurseries in the south of France?

To finish, Yves Rocher is a brand for all the woman, young or old, or even disabled; that?s why Yves Rocher publishes its ?Livre Vert de la Beaut?? in Braille for the blind people.

D. The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve

The main challenge Yves Rocher is currently facing is the competition; since few years, we?ve entered in the ?green trend?, that means that a lot of new companies are appearing and competing in the same market of cosmetic by the plant, or organic products, and trying to copy the same concept. Yves Rocher which is producing such products but since more than 50 years now, have to stay close to his brand values to stay in his position and even acquire more market share.

The second thing that Yves Rocher has to improve is the mail order selling; since 2007, they?ve launched a reorganizational plan, with a new visual identity, with new concept stores ?L?atelier V?g?tal?, new organic products, new marketing and a new signature, ?creator of the cosmetics by the plants?. But the only thing that didn?t changed is the mail order selling, the original way of distribution of Yves Rocher, which represents today 42% of the turnover in France, and more or less the same in all the others European countries. Those mailings really need to be revamped to fit with the new clear image of the brand, and to fit with the new imperatives that the mail order selling as a way of distribution in general is facing; they have to adapt and be more personalized.