There are over a thousand L’OCCITANE boutiques in 90 nations on 5 continents. To supply sufficient high-quality merchandise, L’OCCITANE works with over 130 French farmers and 10,000 area staff from Corsica to the lavender fields in Provence to make sure the top quality and sustainability of components for his or her iconic merchandise.
L’OCCITANE produces luxurious physique washes, scrubs, skin-toning physique oils, foot and hand care, and normal epidermal good works, however L’OCCITANE doesn’t simply rescue pores and skin and assist complexions. It additionally has a charitable facet. The well-known French skincare model works with over 40,000 girls in land-locked Burkina Faso in West Africa to advertise entrepreneurship and training. Different necessary work contains serving to the visually impaired in varied nations.
Established in 2004, The L’OCCITANE Basis was created to unite the philanthropic initiatives launched in 1976. Along with supporting the visually impaired and the emancipation of girls, additionally they work in the direction of preserving pure heritages and biodiversity worldwide. In 2020, it surpassed its objective of supporting 33,000 girls in Faso and has set a brand new one to assist 60,000 girls there by 2025.
Now seventy years outdated, L’OCCITANE’s founder, Olivier Baussan, studied literature at L’Universitie d’Aix-en-Provence. He purchased an outdated nonetheless from an area farmer to distill rosemary and lavender important oils; with a chemist good friend, Yves Millou. Then Bassaun purchased an outdated cleaning soap manufacturing unit, and, in 1976, L’Occitane was born, reviving the normal artwork of soap-making in Marseille. A yr later, the primary harvest of delicate lavender occurred. In 1981, it opened its first store in Volx, Haute Provence. The primary retailer in Paris opened on Rue Vavin in 1992.
L’OCCITANE’s best-selling skincare product is the Shea Butter Hand Cream. One is offered each two seconds world wide. Olivier Baussan first heard about Burkino Faso’s feminine shea butter makers from a stranger he met at an airport whereas touring in Africa. He instantly modified his flight dwelling and flew to Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, inserting a big order of shea butter and pledging to work with girls into the long run to assist their training and entrepreneurship. He has modified lives in Africa. There have been twelve staff on the manufacturing unit he pledged to assist, and now that quantity has was hundreds and hundreds. His charitable group, of which he’s vice chairman, nonetheless focuses on the financial emancipation of girls.
The corporate determined in 1997 to incorporate the names of merchandise in braille on a lot of the packaging. It partnered with the Helen Keller Basis to offer eye exams to varsities on each coasts of the USA. Not simply stateside, proceeds from the gross sales of L’OCCITANE’s “Animal Soaps Set” go to Orbis, a non-profit group preventing blindness in growing nations. For over 20 years, the corporate’s basis has supported initiatives and initiatives to fight avoidable blindness. It hopes to succeed in 15 million beneficiaries worldwide by 2025.
The L’OCCITANE Basis has been a member of the Worldwide Company for the Prevention of Blindness since 2016. “At L’OCCITANE, we need to stay in a world the place everybody can see and expertise the sweetness that nature has to supply,” says Baussan.
Yearly since 2000, the retailing group has offered a brand new solidarity product to lift funds to assist our companions struggle avoidable blindness worldwide. Earlier than that, in 2017, L’OCCITANE and its basis launched into a significant worldwide partnership with UNICEF. The collaboration assured a minimal of 1 million euros yearly for 3 years. It helped forestall childhood blindness of greater than 5 and a half million youngsters in Bolivia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Niger.
The corporate goals to offer 10 million beneficiaries entry to eye care, exhibiting its dedication to preventing avoidable blindness by way of its Union for Imaginative and prescient program. L’OCCITANE has labored with UNICEF to offer Vitamin A complement packages for youngsters worldwide. Vitamin A is crucial for a kid’s immune system, and Vitamin A deficiency is the main reason for childhood blindness.
One other necessary initiative for the corporate, L’OCCITANE, has partnered with the PUR Venture globally to struggle deforestation and local weather change by planting bushes regionally. For over ten years, L’OCCITANE has been introducing initiatives corresponding to eco-refills and in-store recycling. Since its inception, it has provided a glass bottle return system for native refilling or recycling.
Says Baussand, “The Basis has sprung forth from L’OCCITANE’s soul. Merely bringing out what’s on the within.” He and the corporate have confirmed that the ability of a strong company philanthropy philosophy can result in lasting, impactful adjustments within the lives of thousands and thousands worldwide.
Though the corporate was offered to Austrian businessman Reinold Geiger, Baussan retains a 5% stake. The headquarters is predicated in Manosque within the Alpes-de-Haute, Provence in southwestern France.
