Ales gears up to extend international reach of its brands
brands for the second half of 2007, France-based Ales has announced
the appointment of a new director general, charged with further
increasing its global presence.
The company has appointed Lorenza Battigello as the new director general, building on her 11 years of experience heading up the company's Italian subsidiary. Battigello started her career in the food industry, with Danone back in 1977, and started her career in cosmetics in 1985 by heading up a marketing team for the Vichy brand in Italy. She takes over from Patrick Ales who formed the Ales Group in 1969 with the launch of the Phytosolba skin care cream. He will remain the non-executive president of the company. The company has also announced that Romain Ales has quit his post as director general, in charge of subsidiaries and all of the company's commercial operations. The executive reshuffle will primarily serve to advance the company's aim to increase its international footprint and to further build on the strength of its brands. Company ends 2007 on a high The new appointment comes as the company announced it's full year 2007 results, showing sales up 4.4 per cent to reach a total of €169.1m, a figure that reflected a distinctly improved performance during the second half of the year. The figures also showed that, although France remains its largest individual market with sales up 2.9 per cent for the year to reach €67.2m, international sales are growing much faster, up 7.7 per cent for the year at €101.9m. Breaking down the figures further, the company said that its perfumes division had also performed extremely well during 2007, with sales up 10.2 per cent to €10.4m. Polish and Spanish markets show promise On a geographical basis, the company reported increases of 50 per cent and 32 per cent respectively for the Polish and Spanish markets, while Italy still remains the company's largest international market outside of France, accounting for 22 per cent of the group sales. During 2008, the company said that it expects to concentrate on developing its markets throughout Europe and North America, while looking to introduce direct distribution into the Portuguese market during the course of the year. The Ales Group owns the Lierac, Phyto and Conon brands, and experienced strong growth in 2006 after developing its international presence, before announcing flat figures for the first six months of 2007.
