Groupe Rocher Plans to Divest Petit Bateau

PARIS — Groupe Rocher plans to start taking steps to divest its Petit Bateau children’s clothing brand and Stanhome home care business as it focuses on its sustainable plant-based care, beauty and well-being activities. Those include Yves Rocher, Arbonne, Sabon and Dr. Pierre Ricaud. 

Following a restructuring of its governance 18 months ago, Groupe Rocher said Wednesday it is entering the second phase of its strategic plan. The French company’s investment budgets will be raised by 100 million euros, or 50 percent, during the upcoming four years.

“Over the past 18 months, we have successfully completed the first decisive step: straightening out our finances and transforming our business models to step up our performance,” said Jean-David Schwartz, Groupe Rocher’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “Today, we have the financial resources to instill fresh momentum, by focusing our investment on developing the potential in our care, beauty and well-being products.”

Part of the group’s second phase of its roadmap includes doubling earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization over the next five years. EBITDA has already grown by 25 percent over the past 18 months, according to the company.

Groupe Rocher will home in on product desirability and commitment to nature, as well. Bris Rocher, chairman of Groupe Rocher, said the company’s purpose “is becoming a lever to align our strategy, a compass to navigate in a complex environment, while staying in touch with the future generations’ wants and needs.”

“Around our time-honored flagship brand Yves Rocher, which ranks number-one by value and volume in the French health-and-beauty market, Arbonne, Sabon and Dr. Pierre Ricaud bring in complementary universes that reinforce and substantiate the group’s ‘natural and committed’ positioning,” said Schwartz. “This new phase will add clarity and consistency to our roadmap: channeling and focusing our energy will maximize the impact of our initiatives and create more value for all these brands and for all our stakeholders.”

During the next five years, the company plans to modernize 200 Yves Rocher stores in France and open more than 150 in Asia and the Middle East. Sabon is to get 20 new stores in Japan and open in a few dozen new travel-retail doors. Groupe Rocher plans to jump-start its omnichannel sales network in France, Italy, Asia and the U.S., which it considers high priority. Groupe Rocher is also to substantially increase its media and communication investment.

“One of the group’s distinctive strengths is its fully integrated model reaching from the plant to your skin,” said Rocher. “With our multidisciplinary teams bringing together over 200 scientists and other experts, the group has full control over every single key step in the process to unleash the potential in plants. As 60 percent of medicinal products came about through plant-related research and 80 percent of plants remain unexplored, the scope for research is huge.”

Petit Bateau’s distribution network is 50 percent in brick-and-mortar retail, 25 percent online and 25 percent wholesale. The brand has 370 sales points, including 200 outside of France, and 760 retailers, of which 500 are abroad. Petit Bateau, which fully makes each garment, manufactures 28 million a year. Its sales are 55 percent made in France, 25 percent elsewhere in Europe and 10 percent in Japan.

The brand’s in-store and online sales gained overall last year, including double-digit growth in France and Italy, Groupe Rocher said. 

“The brand, in other words, increased its market share and attracted new customers,” the company explained. “Its figures in France are nine points higher than the children’s clothing retail market average.”

If Petit Bateau changes hands, the deal would follow that of another iconic French childrenswear brand, Bonpoint. As previously reported, on Jan. 8, Chinese fashion conglomerate Younger Group acquired Bonpoint from private investment firm EPI.

Groupe Rocher’s Stanhome brand, which has a door-to-door selling business model, operates in France, Italy and Mexico, where it has 14,000, 60,000 and more than 130,000 independent consultants, respectively.

Groupe Rocher also appointed new independent members to its board of directors: Paul Polman, a former CEO of Unilever, and Elisabeth Sandager, who has served as global brand president of Helena Rubinstein and Carita at L’Oréal.

“Paul Polman has led several multinational businesses, including food-processing and cosmetics giant Unilever, where he rolled out the net positive revolution to hard-wire sustainable development into the group’s strategy,” said Rocher. “As CEO of Unilever (2009 to 2019), Paul demonstrated that businesses can leverage their mission by combining a long-term multiparty model with outstanding financial performance.”

Rocher highlighted that under Polman, shareholders’ returns increased 290 percent as Unilever topped sustainable development rankings worldwide.

“Elisabeth Sandager, an acclaimed expert in brand development, principally in the care and beauty sector, has turned businesses around throughout her career,” continued Rocher. “During her time as global brand president at Helena Rubinstein, she played a pivotal role in repositioning the brand, notably in Asia, where it saw triple-digit growth. Her strategic vision and in-depth knowledge of the Asian markets, which are strategically meaningful for our group, will support our plans to expand there.”

Groupe Rocher, which is family-owned, estimates in 2024 that it generated about 2.2 billion euros in sales, up 2.4 percent year-on-year. Of total sales, Yves Rocher made 53 percent, Arbonne 13 percent, Sabon 6 percent, Dr. Pierre Ricaud 2.5 percent, Petit Bateau 12 percent and Stanhome 9 percent.

Groupe Rocher sold the Flormar makeup brand on Sept. 30, 2024, to a consortium of Turkish investors.