L’Occitane group sells off Le Couvent des Minimes

The L’Occitane group has sold Le Couvent des Minimes, its subsidiary brand specialized in cologne and natural cosmetics, to business group HLD partnered with Filorga and SVR laboratories.

Details concerning the amount of the transaction, announced Tuesday, were not disclosed.
Created in 2004 within the L’Occitane group, Le Couvent des Minimes has an annual turnover of approximately ten million euros, a source close to the issue said to AFP.

L’Occitane CEO Reinold Geiger justified the sale remarking that ‘(it) will allow us to focus our marketing investments and the work of our teams on our most important brands,’ such as L’Occitane en Provence, Melvita and Erborian.

Evaluated on the Hong Kong stock market, L’Occitane had an annual revenue of 1.28 billion euros (1.37 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year of 2015/2016 (+8.9% over the year).

The group has a strong presence in Asia and the United States in particular, with France representing only 8% of its global sales.

As such, Le Couvent des Minimes makes half its sales figures in France and the products are essentially distributed in pharmacies and perfumeries, in contrast to the big names labels of L’Occitane, which are mainly sold via its own-brand stores internationally.

Selective distribution is, however, the commercial model of Filorga and SVR, the French hub for dermo-cosmetics and anti-aging cream, which has undergone strong development in the past ten years in competition with the HLD group.

With the integration of Le Couvent des Minimes, which will be able to benefit from a presence in 85 countries, from synergetic business relationships and from significant production, Filorga and SVR hope to reach a turnover of approximately 200 million euros, said a source close to the matter.