Rocco Pacchioni, Puressentiel

Premium Beauty News - How would you describe Puressentiel in a few words?

Rocco Pacchioni - Puressentiel is an environmentally responsible brand specialised in aromatherapy products and organic and natural cosmetics, which solely relies on essential oils and pure natural ingredients with proven efficacy.

The brand offers some 180 products divided in 25 lines to naturally address the daily health, of the whole family (purifying of ambient air, muscle and joint relief, allergies, respiratory well-being, sleep, slimming...). Efficacy and safety are at the heart of our DNA: 191 scientific studies confirm the efficacy and tolerability of our ranges that can boast a record satisfaction rate of 99.33% from users.

Our Supply Chain and Quality Department implemented several charters including the "Puressentiel Product Quality Charter" and the "Puressentiel Raw Materials Quality Charter" to guarantee quality, eco-friendly raw materials and 100% pure, natural and effective active ingredients.

Premium Beauty News - The brand experienced an impressive development in just ten years?

Rocco Pacchioni - Puressentiel took advantage of the growing public interest for aromatherapy and natural solutions, while simplifying and broadening its use. Our products are ready for use, and we have carefully prepared our essential oils with well-formulated blends to guarantee optimal efficiency and safe use.

At the brand’s inception we were able to build on the diversity of the pharmacy network in France to create new markets. The Puressentiel Purifying Air Spray with 41 essential oils, is the brand’s best-seller and the very first natural air freshener launched on the marketplace. It is now number 1 in the aromatherapy market with an 8.5% market share in France and a 4.3% growth in 2014.

Premium Beauty News - How do you consider your international development?

Rocco Pacchioni - With a lot of ambition and no rush! We are already present in 68 countries and more than 25% of our turnover is generated from export sales. For the past three years our ambition has been to open a new subsidiary abroad and to set foot each year in ten new countries with the support of distributors. We are mainly present in Western Europe and Africa. We are ramping up our development in Central and Eastern Europe by entering the Polish market and with some launches planned in September in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But the really big challenges ahead for us are Asia and North America. We launched our brand in Quebec last year and we will enter English Canada in September.

Canada of course is a gateway to the United States where we aim to launch Puressentiel at the end of 2017 or early 2018. We were lucky enough to attract the attention of all the major drugstore networks and we are learning to work with them. And for that, we can leverage our experience in UK with Boots and Superdrugs.

It’s a big challenge, because the natural market is very fragmented, each country has its own consumption and distribution patterns and its own players. There are few international brands in this sector; we are usually faced with very local competitors.

Premium Beauty News - Innovation is at the heart of your success. What are the next steps?

Rocco Pacchioni - We have changed the market landscape by inventing new product categories. We have also revolutionized the market of snap-on pumps with large tanks, with our new patented pump PES600. The result of two years of work, this pump with a 600 micron microdispersion, propellant-free - the winner of the 8th edition of the Aerosol & Dispensing Forum (ADF) Awards - allows optimum diffusion using the micro-dispersion of essential oils with no use of propellant gas.

We regularly launch new products in all categories where we operate: OTC, medical devices and cosmetics. We will complement our existing ranges at a steady pace: nearly 200 products are under development!