Premium Beauty News – Is Sothys a history of French cosmetics?
Christian Mas – At the beginning in 1946, Sothys was a Parisian beauty institute that my family bought in 1966. The institute has the particularity of making its own formulas. The brand is then part of what I call the new wave of French beauty with the Carita sisters, Nadia Payot and all this abundant and pioneering generation of artisan cosmetologists.
My father, Bernard Mas, then developed the brand operationally and very quickly sold his formulas in France and abroad. We are moving from being a small-scale trade to being an SME. In the 1970s, the question of industrialization naturally arose and my father then chose to return to Corrèze, and to establish the brand’s factory where the family’s roots were. This choice has become a real strength.
Premium Beauty News – How has the brand been deployed internationally?
Christian Mas – My uncle developed sales in France and my father devoted himself to international business. Always in professional network, it was an initial choice to which they stuck. We have very strong stories about our export distribution networks, especially in the USA. In the 1980s, we set up a second local production plant in Miami, Florida, which is now celebrating its 40th anniversary, then a platform for Asia, based in Singapore. Today we are well established in some sixty countries and distributed in 90, with a real presence on all European markets and those of our two major subsidiaries in the USA and Singapore. A subsidiary represents 5 to 60 people, a logistics centre, a sales team, local trainers for the use of our methods and products, and a marketing hub.
Premium Beauty News – What is Sothys today?
Christian Mas – My brother and I took over the reins a decade ago. We have continued to develop in the beauty salon sector, where we are virtually the leader, with approximately 15,000 doorsteps worldwide. Sothys does not have its own institutes with the exception of 128 rue St Honoré which is the historic address and which will reopen in January 2023 after renovations. The group makes more or less 50 million consolidated, of which 65 to 70% internationally. We have also made a successful entry into the high-end hotel industry where we are present in around a hundred 4/5 star hotels in France and a few attractive international locations (Hanoi, Osaka, Bora Bora, Marrakech, Monaco, etc. ).
Our development strategy is based on loyalty to our network. Without the service to attract the customer it’s complicated today. So we are staying in beauty salons with the ambition to develop in hotels in our subsidiaries abroad.
Premium Beauty News – Sothys claims values close to nature, how does this translate into the formulas?
Christian Mas – When we took over, my father, in a rather visionary way, created a botanical garden in Auriac in Corrèze, my grandfather’s village. He devoted all his energy to this, and today this 4-hectare botanical garden serves us to study the biotope with 150 hectares of protected forest. Here, our visitors can see how Sothys fits into its environment. We have all this green expertise and work our flagship active ingredients with the garden. This is done with local producers, saffron growers from the Lot, or birch sap harvested in the region for our organic range.
Premium Beauty News – What are the particularities of Sothys treatments?
Christian Mas – Our truth comes from the cabin. In the laboratory, there are about thirty scientists and an integrated institute. Everything is done in vivo between the researchers and the practitioners, the development of the products is done completely in concert with the treatment stage. This is what makes the difference. There are about fifty new formulas a year on the brand, which we will find on sale or in cabin treatments.
Premium Beauty News – – What are the next launches?
Christian Mas – Next year we are extending our organic face range to the Body offer. There are also seasonal treatments and collaborations with French brands that have the same values as us. In January, there will also be the big launch of a new range of Sothys in-room products. We will meet all bedroom needs with a range that will be “plastic neutral” and refillable. Everything is produced at home, it will be the same products as in the institute.
Premium Beauty News – Finally, how do you define the Sothys woman?
Christian Mas – She is a woman who goes to an institute, she is around 40/45 years old. But between social networks and our hotel presence, it’s a younger clientele, the consumer is aware of our values. In the hotel industry, we also have 30 to 40% of men in the cabin, which has made it possible to open up a new clientele.
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