David Frossard, Différentes Latitudes
Premium Beauty News - You celebrated the 10th anniversary of Différentes Latitudes in 2015. How much progress has been made?
David Frossard - Our company is developing well. We have now reached a 3-million-euro turnover, and it is reinforced by that achieved by cognac brand Frapin: we bought their perfumery licence in 2007. We employ about ten workers, and we distribute the fifteen brands or so in our portfolio in approximately 500 points of sale in about twenty countries throughout Europe and the Middle East, but also in the United States and Russia. All in all, we hold a portfolio of about 300 perfume and perfumed candle references.
Premium Beauty News - How do you see the future after spending the past ten years serving rare perfumes?
David Frossard - We worked a lot with many brands to help them settle on the market. Now, we intend to favour the brands with which we can build a close, long-lasting relationship.
The market changed following the boom of niche brands. Today, we need as much passion as before, but much more professionalism. And to meet this new challenge, we have chosen to limit the number of brands in our portfolio, but to work even more in depth with those that are ready to invest in their image.
When you are an agent, you know that when the first brands you got in your portfolio develop well, they will end up standing on their own two feet, so you need to regularly try and discover new gems. However, we no longer want to just act as a business incubator, we actually wish to support brands on a long-term basis and get more stability in terms of development. So, we have been strengthening our ties – in particular our capital ties – with brands. And that is what we have been doing with Liquides Imaginaires: now, they have a turnover of one million euros, and we are trying to raise funds for the second time.
Premium Beauty News - What about new projects?
David Frossard - Last September, we launched the parfumsdecreateurs.com website, a directory of niche perfumes and alternative perfumery in France, to inform consumers on brands and help them find the nearest points of sale.
We have also just created L.A. Bruket in France, a Swedish skincare brand based on natural actives derived from algae, essential oils, and traditional herbs.
Besides, in coherence with this will to reinforce our relationships with brands, we are planning to create and launch BAST, a brand that develops very technical skincare products for sportsmen and women.
Apart from that, we certainly aim to develop our retail activity. The Liquides perfume bar concept we inaugurated in 2013 is very popular. The shopping experience we managed to design to focus on services and advice works extremely well, and now we intend to give it more visibility. To this aim, we have been looking for the right partner and a well-adapted site. At first, it might well be presented in the form of a shop-in-shop, within a department store.
