Robert Costelloe: It’s such a pleasure to have you on our series Loic. Thank you! And first up, you have this amazing, diverse background with some truly global brands. You’re now a year or so into your tenure with Jurlique. What drew you to the organisation and what does this tell us about the challenge you look for?

Loic Rethore: The appeal really comes from the company DNA. It was founded in 1985 and from the start was very much about tapping into nature, developing products from plants and herbs, and owning the full development and production. And that’s an amazing story because not many businesses were doing that 40 years ago.

Jurlique champions this concept of ‘seed to skin’ where we control every step in the value and supply chain ourselves. We grow our botanicals in our own biodynamic farm and these provide all the active ingredients for our products. We also have our own factory and develop the formulations ourselves working with some of the best talent in the world when it comes to natural beauty products. And from there the products go into our own stores as well as department stores.

It's very similar to what I experienced working with Nespresso – we sourced the raw ingredients from farmers who we had very strong relationships with and had full ownership of the grinding, roasting, packaging and shipping our products directly to our customers. Looking at Jurlique, this really resonated with me and highlighted the quality of the product, the experience in store and the unique stories being told.

One of the most striking aspects of Jurlique is the brand has never compromised between naturality and efficacy. The perception can be that organic brands or natural brands are nice but they don’t provide the same impact or results as some of the more chemical-led brands. In Jurlique, we are incredibly dedicated to developing a product that works.

RC: And the biodynamic farm raises a question – does location, so Jurlique being based in Australia, play a role in the brand and how it communicates or engages with customers?

LR: I think it’s relevant because it was at the heart of the founder’s decision to choose the location for the farm. Ulrike and Jurgen Klein were looking for a pure, unspoiled environment to grow botanicals and they found that in the Adelaide Hills. And the communities in the area are incredibly important to what we do. The indigenous communities play a critical role in our knowledge for cultivating local botanicals and adapting practices to grow botanicals successfully in that specific climate. So it’s not only about the soil but also who’s around it – those communities that were protecting the land a long time before we came along.

RC: And the core philosophy of Jurlique is being “a pioneer of holistic and conscious beauty”. What does “pioneering” mean to you and how does this pioneering spirit show up in the business day to day?

LR: Pioneering is really about the approach you take to develop the business. It’s the fundamental of why are we creating these products? We are doing what we believe is best for the environment and we doing it in a way that is actually efficacious as well. The pioneering spirit really comes from the founders because that is how they looked at the world. They wanted to create a brand that was a natural beauty brand and that’s very much alive in everything we do.

And I have that same sentiment with some of the other businesses I’ve worked for. I was at Dyson for a couple of years and James Dyson had a very strong view on technology and his brand. When he first developed his bagless vacuum cleaner, a lot of people laughed at him. The guys in the competitor firms said “We make our profit from selling bags so why would you want to get rid of them?”. But for Dyson, his view was the current technology was providing a bad experience to the customer – bags getting stuck etc. The technology took a long time to develop and to take off but there was a vision and there was a persistence to pursue that vision – so ‘pioneering’ is very much about that.

At Jurlique we go a long, long way to ensure our fragrances are 100% natural and for the rest of the portfolio it has to be above 98% - across all products, all ingredients. So this can make it harder to formulate, and there are cheaper, faster ways we could use for formulations but this would reduce the naturality of our products. We have to stick to our DNA and to be as natural as possible. Our formulators have incredible knowledge and expertise to do this, but it is harder.

RC: So with this really strong identity in the company and in the brand, how does that story have to evolve in your different markets in Asia Pacific such as China and Japan?

LR: I think there aren’t too many differences from market to market. If your brand actually is true to itself, that resonates with customers. Japanese consumers are very demanding in terms of expectations of quality and story telling. When they start to get to know a brand, they want to go very deep into it and understand the story that’s behind it. The way you create loyalty is revealing who you really are.

Just a week ago we had an event at the farm and invited media and influencers. All the attendees were fascinated but it was the Japanese attendees that definitely showed the most interest – they want to understand the farm processes, which botanicals are important and how they’re grown. You could really see the amazement in their eyes. Japan is different in many ways, it’s true. But I do believe that if you have a truly genuine approach about your brand that is built on a strong belief, then that can have a huge impact.

This is something we also see in China. When we talk about our biodynamic farm, people light up. They want to know more because it’s such a rich, compelling story. Chinese consumers are very knowledgeable on brands and they’re looking for new stories and experiences. We are also seeing the China market evolving more towards natural or sustainability oriented consumption which was not the case five or ten years ago.

RC: Sustainability is clearly very important to the Jurlique brand and you recently were certified B-Corp. What was the rationale to go for that certification?

LR: It was a very logical step in terms of who we are as a brand. Sustainability is not something we started working on a few years ago. We’ve been focused on it for 40 years and going for B-Corp certification was a natural next step. Ultimately B-Corp is a reflection of the many good things Jurlique has done over the years. But the reality is we have not really spoken enough about what we are doing. Every time we talk about our sustainability policies and actions, people are stunned because it’s very progressive. So B-Corp is a way to make those policies and actions more explicit and reward the teams for their work over the years.

RC: And looking at the year or years ahead, what changes or evolutions in the market and in your industry are you expecting to see or keeping an eye on?

LR: I think we will see this expansion of the natural beauty segment with this focus of no compromise on efficacy. And Jurlique is very much at the front of that. In terms of a specific product, face oil (alongside face creams or serums) is gaining a lot of momentum and is a very natural product. Some of these oils are very efficacious and we are seeing the product take off among the Millenial and Gen Z groups. For example, looking at the face oil market, it's doubled in the last two years in China. We are right in the middle of this and have been producing face oil products since we were founded. So I certainly see this as a strength for Jurlique.

RC: Is there a challenge that you would like to tackle this year?

LR: For 2024 and beyond it’s about how can we tell stories to our customers in a much clearer way? There are many stories – around the farm and the brand – that haven’t been told in entirety. We need to find ways to get these stories out in a more impactful and relevant way. The more we can tell our story the more we can connect with consumers and be more relevant to them.