Guy Flament, Global CEO of Yves Rocher
Guy Flament, Global CEO of Yves Rocher. Read his biography here.
Yves Rocher is a renowned French beauty Brand present in more than 80 countries. Creator of Botanical Beauty©, the Brand has a unique business model without any intermediaries from seeds to skin, which allows it to propose high-quality yet affordable natural beauty products. Respecting both People and Nature has always been the pillar of the company's DNA. It conveys this commitment through its ecosystems, starting with its cradle in La Gacilly (Brittany, France) where you can find the production sites, the Botanical Garden and the 60 hectares of fields in Organic farming. The Yves Rocher Brand is also the first sponsor of the Yves Rocher Foundation (created in 1991) whose primary mission is to protect biodiversity.
Yves Rocher is a family business created in 1959. Mr. Yves Rocher started by creating his own ointment with a plant called lesser celandine in his attic in Brittany! 60 years later Yves Rocher has a worldwide presence, but the vision of the company remains that plants are at the heart of your products. This avant-gardist vision back then has now become a prevailing trend. How do you make sure Yves Rocher continues to lead the way as an ambassador for nature and biodiversity?
The creation of the company by Mr. Yves Rocher was based, since the beginning in 1959, on commitments with the leitmotif “the duties we have towards future generations,” to use the Founder's own words. At the time, nobody spoke about sustainable development, however he was deeply convinced, and it was the basis of his entrepreneurial project.
More than sixty years later, these topics are fully integrated into the DNA of the Yves Rocher Brand. Our Brand signature “Act Beautiful” claims that we believe more in responsible actions than in words. Nevertheless, at Yves Rocher we are permanently moving forward to reduce our impact on the environment through 5 core product commitments:
Our origin: We have over 60 years of experience in botanical science, more than 3000 stores and 30 million loyal customers worldwide; and a portfolio of around 1000 product references. The Brand is sold worldwide, but 85% of our production is home-made, in Brittany, France. In our 3 factories in Brittany, France we produce almost 400 million products every year. We have no intermediaries, that allows us to be affordable and to minimize carbon impact. Our ambition is to be carbon neutral in all our activities in La Gacilly from 2025.
Our sourcing: We have developed specific know-how in agroecology. We use this model to grow our 8 iconic plants at La Gacilly. In addition, we have more than 350 natural supply chains from around the world that are integrated in our products (for example: Argan in Morocco, Agave in Mexico). We closely follow the responsible management and traceability of these botanical sources. We are committed to source with respect for people, guaranteeing fair prices to our partners and accompanying them to preserve and cultivate virtuous agricultural practices, respectful of local ecosystems. For that purpose, we are a member of UEBT, an association of committed companies including responsible brands sourcing with respect for biodiversity.
Our formulas: Mr Yves Rocher was the creator of Botanical Beauty©. It means every product we develop is a plant-based product. Today, over 100 innovations each year and 150 passionate inhouse scientists in Botanical Beauty© are constantly innovating in our laboratories. Our current challenge is to maximize the percentage of naturality in our formulas while delivering the highest possible efficacy. Our teams are doing amazing progress in makeup which is the most difficult category to tackle.
Our packaging: We develop 100% eco-designed products made with minimum impact on the environment and we reduce more and more the weight of product packs. Since October, all our bottles are now made of 100% recycled plastic (RPET) which represent 2,700 tons per year. We are the first big international player in the cosmetic industry to make such a move.
To enrich biodiversity: Since the beginning: respecting, knowing, preserving and promoting biodiversity is the priority we put at the core of all our decisions and choices. For example, all our Breton industrial sites are refuges for biodiversity, certified Organic by Ecocert. As you may know, the Brand is the first sponsor of the Yves Rocher Foundation in its actions for biodiversity, such as “Plant For Life”, a program that has already planted 100 million trees in the world.
In order to challenge ourselves and strengthen our culture of continuous improvement in CSR, we have decided to seek the B Corporation certification worldwide.
Today we see the emerging trend that regenerative practices are the next step in conserving biodiversity. As always, Yves Rocher seems a step ahead using agroecology as a guiding principle on his 60 hectares of organic fields in La Gacilly. Can you tell us why you chose to adopt agroecological practices and how are they applied?
Nothing is better than the billions of years of research Nature has carried out to evolve and adapt. This gave to Mr Yves Rocher the motivation to create the Botanical Garden in La Gacilly, in 1975. It was the first one focused on the plants found in our products and over the years, it has become a real conservatory for the living world. There are more than 1500 species now, made up of endemic plants and those from elsewhere! It is a real open-air laboratory that provides our expert Botanists and Biologists with an unlimited source of inspiration. It allows us to protect plants on a planetary scale. We exchange seeds with gardens from all over the world.
In La Gacilly, in our Breton cradle, we have chosen agroecology to grow our eight iconic plants that are part of the composition of more than 20% of our products. An agricultural innovation as close as possible to natural rhythms. Agroecology is the symbiosis between agriculture and biodiversity: getting the best out of ecosystems that around us to produce in a more balanced way, to ensure permanently the quality of our plants. We increase plant diversity on and around the plot, which promotes the insect procession, earthworms and other birds, beneficial to production.
Yves Rocher also sources botanical raw materials from several countries such as Madagascar, where you source Aphloia or French Polynesia, where you source Monoi. How is Yves Rocher ensuring sourcing practices are respecting people and biodiversity so far away?
We have more than 350 natural supply chains that integrate our products! All these supply chains are monitored with different metrics by our teams to guarantee their sustainability. We also rely a lot on our local partners and we regularly visit them to verify their good practices. Our values are based on responsible sourcing, the protection of plants and people and sharing for a more equitable world.
Our original botanical source is situated in La Gacilly, where we cultivate our 8 emblematic plants: Edulis, Calendula, Matricaria Chamomile, Roman Chamomile, Arnica, Cornflower, Ice Plant & Peppermint.
Organic chamomile manual harvest
Cornflowers manual harvest
In Madagascar, for example, our emblematic plants are Aphloia Theiformis, Sigesbeckia Orientalis and Centella Asiatica and major commitments towards this supply chain: an agroforestry project, the autonomy of Aphloia pickers in partnership with Sotramex (supplier of emblematic plants) and many other projects.
In our French Polynesia source, for example, where we have been cultivating Tiare Flowers in organic farming since 2015, a charter exists for good cultivation practice.
Yves Rocher is a new UEBT member since September. For Yves Rocher, what is the strategic importance of working with UEBT?
Consumers are increasingly demanding that companies demonstrate a real commitment to ethical sourcing, and especially when it comes to ingredients from biodiversity. UEBT verifies the commitments made by companies to follow best practices and the measures they have taken to protect biodiversity and respect human rights.
UEBT's principles and values are clearly in line with our own values, with our DNA! We are committed to Nature, to biodiversity and we act with respect towards our different communities. It’s just NATURAL to become a member.
By becoming a UEBT member, we gain access to a whole network, an ecosystem of organizations and companies with which we can share good practices. It is also an opportunity for us to commit even further in this direction, by making our commitments, validated by UEBT, public to consumers.
Being a MEMBER of UEBT is also a responsibility! We are committed to them and with them, on an ambitious 3-year action and improvement plan. This action plan fits with our continuous improvement mindset.
Also, by engaging in the future in a certification process for our integrated supply chains and our products, we are raising our standards higher!
In terms of ethical sourcing, what challenges remain for the cosmetics industry? How does Yves Rocher promote sector-wide change on sourcing issues?
Naturality has become a major trend within the cosmetic industry, and so ethical sourcing is and will be key as consumers are asking for more respect towards biodiversity, more transparency, and globally more committed companies! Yves Rocher is the leading Brand in the Beauty industry in France. As such we walk the talk and try to lead the change on topics like ethical sourcing and biodiversity protection; always with a mindset to continuously improve our practices. In the fight for sustainable development collaboration between industry players must be the rule.
Yves Rocher is often cited as one of the favorite brands of French people; a fact supported by our latest UEBT Biodiversity Barometer survey where Yves Rocher ranks first by a significant margin when we asked French respondents to name a brand that respects people and biodiversity. How do you explain this high recognition with French consumers?
Yves Rocher is an historical beauty Brand, which has become, through the years, what we can call a Love Brand. We are an authentic Brand with a strong family story. French consumers are really attached to the Brand and our values. Yves Rocher is a Brand of social bond, close to its consumers as we have developed a direct relationship with each one, either through our Beauty Advisors or other customer-relationship moments.
It goes from generation to generation. The Brand is present in all the stages of life from the youngest to the oldest. We propose an affordable and global offer, and we are present in all direct-to-consumer channels (ecommerce, retail, mail-order, social-selling): all consumers (French ones but also international ones) can find at Yves Rocher an answer to every beauty need.
Bris Rocher, the CEO of the Groupe Rocher and grandson of the founder, just won the BFM prize of Entrepreneur of the year 2020. How does the continued Rocher family involvement support the company’s commitments and strategies for biodiversity and nature?
In December 2019, Bris Rocher, the CEO of Groupe Rocher, decided to make Groupe Rocher the very first company in France to adopt the status of Mission-Driven Company, a new status recently created in the French Law.
Consequently, the Groupe has rewritten its corporate bylaws, integrating its “mission” which is to “Reconnect People To Nature”. At Groupe Rocher we do believe that companies have a dual duty, first to create value for its stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders, partners) and as well to take into account the common good. For Groupe Rocher, it was obvious to choose a mission related to Nature. Our conviction is that the more people are connected to Nature, the more they experience its benefits, and the more they act to preserve it. The purpose of each brand of the Groupe Rocher is to contributes to this Groupe mission.
What do you wish for 2021?
2020 has been an unexpected and very uncomfortable year all around the world with the pandemic. It is not over yet but I do hope that in 2021 we all will be able to get back our individual freedom, probably thanks to vaccines.
At the same time, I wish that as individuals, as companies, as organizations we will all capitalize on the lessons learned during this crisis. Resilience, agility, frugality, adaptability are drivers we used to adapt during the 2020 crisis. Let’s continue to activate them to accelerate necessary changes in our lives and businesses to face challenges related to global Climate Change.
Protecting biodiversity is part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, and with UEBT we are committed to actively contribute to it. Each contribution is important, through the Yves Rocher Foundation we have just pledged to plant at least 35 million additional trees by 2025 with species that strengthen local biodiversity.