ents are still grown in the Adelaide Hills and the products are now sold in more than 19 countries around the world. Inside Retail Weekly: How has the last financial year been for Jurlique? Laurence Crussol: I think one of our biggest highlights for this year is the fact that we’ve retained our position as the number one premium beauty brand in Australia. Overall, business was good last year. It was challenging in Hong Kong, but as you know, Hong Kong went through a period of recession, so we experienced some tough moments. However, it helped us have a better understanding of the market, work strongly with the team and recover – we’re probably stronger now than 18 months ago. Hong Kong retail has been going through a big recession in the past 18 months, it’s been challenging as tourists numbers are down. We worked with a team of local customer experience experts, focusing our marketing efforts on the local customer more than Chinese tourists in Hong Kong. IRW: Jurlique just launched its first bricks-and-mortar store in Europe. How is that tracking? LC: For our first retail footprint in Europe, we visited a lot of sites in London and we finally decided to choose Oxford Street, which is Europe’s biggest shopping strip. We opened a two-storey store, situated just opposite Selfridges. This has since created an amazing momentum and resulted in an increase on our e-commerce business in the UK. IRW: There’s been a long cult following of Jurlique in Asia. What plans do you have for Jurlique in that part of the world this year? LC: Asia is a very important region for us, the Australian business remains our largest market in 2017. The Chinese customer was the first to believe in our brand 30 years ago and they are highly passionate about our products. The South Australian origin and the skincare story, where we control every step of the production, resonates strongly with Chinese customers – we don’t have to explain to them what natural skincare is, it’s part of their culture. We have 120 stores in China, we’re now rolling out the new retail design, which is exciting. In 2018, we’ll open a store at the Venetian Macao, which as you know, is the Vegas of Asia – it sees a lot of tourists and is regarded as one of the two largest shopping areas in Macau. IRW: Tell me about the redesign of the stores. Why was it time for a change? LC: There was definitely a need to create a consistent customer experience for us to stay ahead of the curve, and it was time for us to create consistency across the different markets. We have many different stores, different concepts, different materials and it was confusing from a customer point of view. We started working on a new retail design early last year and we’ve opened a few new stores in Australia and now around the world. The inspiration was to create an oasis for customers to escape. The retail design is a blend of man and nature, using natural materials. We also tried to replicate the South Australian glow through the lighting in store, we introduced a drying rack replicating our process on the farm.  It really is trying to connect the customer with nature and our South Australian farm. We opened our first new design store in Canberra last month. IRW: What would you say are the biggest differences between the Asian and Australian beauty consumers? LC: In Asia, they are very passionate about having a robust skincare regime. For example, the consumer in China tends to have six or more steps in her skincare routine and it goes up to 10 or 13 steps in Japan and Korea. Australian women usually have a three-step routine – clean, tone and moisturise. The big difference is the process is seen as very functional, something you do in the morning before you rush out, but Australian consumers have more sophisticated routines at a later stage of their lives. In Asia, women are adding anti-ageing and eye creams in their 20s and in China, there’s a constant search for what’s more effective – they always want the best, most effective skincare because it’s exciting for them. They have a passion for it and it’s a personal time for them to relax and energise.   Because Asian customers have a different approach to skincare, they expect a different experience in-store, which we have to tailor in different markets. In Japan, it’s a sophisticated market, you need to take the time to explain the routine and properly educate customers. Our research tells us 70 per cent of customers know already what they want before they enter a store, so the Chinese customer can go in for a very quick, very short experience to also spending some more time in-store. IRW: What plans does Jurlique have for the year ahead? LC: 2018 is very busy for us. The first key thing is the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility in South Australia later this year, which has a research facility with two laboratories, so it’s a major project for us and we’re absolutely excited to see it come to life. The new facility will be fully functional in terms of production in the first quarter of next year. The existing facility is now getting too small – we’ve been there 30 years, but now we can really go to the next level in terms of production. It will also allow us to have very fast distribution around the world. We have some major product innovation coming in the second half of 2018. In terms of the website, we’ve done a lot of work this year. We’ve got a new site in Australia and the UK. We are investing a lot in CRM to get a deeper understanding of the consumer and viewing their buying behaviours so that’s something we’re focusing on in 2018. IRW: I heard that Jurlique has changed its marketing strategy lately. Can you tell me about that? LC: It was time for the brand to evolve. We conducted brand health research and our customers love our natural credentials but they want to know more about how effective natural skincare can be for their skin concerns. We are really bringing the customer to the centre of our decisions. Last year, we invested in customer insights across all markets, Australia, Asia and Europe. Those insights have given us a very clear understanding of how to unlock the brand’s potential. What we know is our customer wants natural products and is absolutely not willing to sacrifice on efficacy. You will see this being delivered in our future campaigns in 2018. IRW: There are some great Australian brands out there, but there aren’t many that go onto become successful global brands. What do you think are some of the challenges when it comes to international expansion for Australian retailers? LC: The two major challenges for us when it comes to creating global brands in the future is we really need to deeply understand how to best do business with China and understand the Chinese customer. We know the power of digital and brand advocates in China and we are investing behind this. When you become global, you need to start driving consistency around the world and start implementing processes, so that’s what we’re doing at the moment and that at times can be challenging. We need to really reinforce our unique point of difference, and stand out in a very crowded environment, we need to stay true to who we are and remain relevant to our customer. IRW: Beauty’s a fiercely competitive industry now, with large players like Sephora in the market and smaller online retailers gaining momentum. LC: It’s always been competitive in skincare and beauty – competition has always been very strong. The main difference is when I joined Jurlique two years ago, we were one of the few brands in the premium natural beauty space, but this is not the case anymore. More cosmetic brands have shifted production to natural and organic, so now we’ve got threats coming from new entrants and brands from premium natural skincare. We’re working very closely with Mark Ritson a branding professor, who says that fitting in is a failure, so we need to make sure we’re one of the most natural skincare brands, really stay true to who we are and stand for what we believe in. In the beauty industry, everyone does a great job, so there’s no place for mediocrity. IRW: You’ve had a lot of great experience in the beauty industry, having previously worked at Loreal. What have you learnt from other brands that you’ve brought to Jurlique? LC: I worked for 15 years in the industry prior to working at Jurlique, I think that time gave me a footprint in beauty because I worked with brands such as Armani, Lancome and YSL in Australia and after seven years, I was in the sales division in Paris. So I think my work at the leadership level at Loreal gave me experience in terms of consumer understanding, product and industry knowledge and marketing and commercial experience and of course, people management. I’ve also got a French background, so I’ve been immersed in beauty from a very young age. so I’ve used my background and knowledge to help transition some of my learnings to Jurlique in order to better compete with the other major brands. Two years after I joined Jurlique, it became the first largest premium skincare brand in Australia and gave me the experience to take on the role I have at the moment. IRW: What changes have you seen in the evolution of the customer over the years? LC: I think the customer has changed a lot in recent years. First, the customer is highly confident and educated, she can access all information immediately and 70 per cent of purchases are made before she enters the store so she knows what she wants. The other trend is we have an increasingly healthy lifestyle, so brands that offer natural and effective products will do well in the market in the future. Those are two massive trends we see, as well as the impact of digital. Online or offline, it has to be a seamless experience for customers wherever they shop. And probably the last trend is more customers want more transparency and authenticity from companies. However, everyone’s claiming to be authentic, so the authenticity bubble is probably about to burst. So retailers should stop talking about it, just be it.