For many years now, people have been taking care of their beauty by themselves and at home. And to answer this increasing fashion, new shops has been appearing all around France, where private individuals are proposed with professionals materials and products. We wanted to know more about the creators of one of these brands : Bleu Libellule.

Interview of Caroline and Jean-Philippe Wincker.

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What is the story of Bleu Libellule ?

At first, in 1997, we created a central buying service only for professionals, then we made it possible for them to buy professionals products on-line. Naturally, we fought about creating a store concept for them. Today, we have 63 point of sales in France and about fifteen to come for the end of the year 2013. Thanks to our different partnerships, we have 15000 products and materials for hairdressing and cosmetics.

What is like to work together?

We have different career. Caroline is a legal expert and me, I work in sale.... sale of professional hairdressing product! Her experience combined with my experience in merchandising and distribution, our will to create our own business, brought us closer in our professional life.

How are your shops ?

The shops have a surface area between 110 and 150 m2, and are mostly situated in shopping centres and industrial zones. For the design, we used anthracite grey and white. These colours highlight our products display.

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What about the financial turnover ?

On average a shop realizes 500000 €. In 2012, the group realized a turnover of 22 millions.

How is it possible to sale professional products to the uninitiated ?

Uninitiated are sometimes better informed than some pros ! But to answer your question, what makes Bleu Libellule works is the will to give proper services to our clients as well as satisfy their requirements. To do so, our managers are trained during two months.

During this period, there is technical training for coloration, shampoo, cares, hair products services and so for all the brands. There is also a continuous training with a total immersion in a shop to study business from A to Z.

Each manager will hire and train his own team. The training is really important as it is a middle course mean to develop the BL concept into a franchise. The training is the main point to transmit the values and criterion that make the group so successful.

Are you clients only private individual ?

Private individuals represent 80% of our clients and the other 20% represents cosmetic and hairdressing professionals : contractors and employees. The first Monday of every month, everything in the stores is on special offer.

The sponsorship of the TV programme nouveau look pour une nouvelle vie begins tonight, why is that ?

We wanted, through this cult TV programme, to showcase our brand with the sparkling Cristina Cordula to represent us. This programme share one of our values : reveal everyone natural beauty, using products and professional advice. This partnership is settled for the all season and should be seen by two million viewers.

Well, we'll think about you tonight !

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