Galeries Lafayette supports French beauty and wellness start-ups with Brand Booster accelerator

By Austyn King | Published: 24-Oct-2019

The digital native brands include eco-friendly beauty brand CoZie alongside By Charlot, Ciaooo and SMOON

Galeries Lafayette Group, owner of the French department store, is supporting beauty start-ups with the launch of its Brand Booster accelerator programme.

Focusing on 'Digital Native Vertical Brands' (DNVBs), the nine-month programme will provide five French start-ups a year with support including funding, in-store and online distribution opportunities within the Galeries Lafayette group, workshops and mentoring sessions.

Among this year's picks is organic beauty brand CoZie, which offers a range of zero waste cosmetics products that are made in France.

With products ranging from hand creams to deodorants, the brand also offers a refill system that allows customers to bring back empty bottles and refill them using the brand's dispenser.

Matthieu Caloni, Galeries Lafayette Group’s Director of Strategy and Transformation, said: “Lafayette Brand Booster confirms the Galeries Lafayette group’s historical role in unearthing, revealing and supporting the young brands and designers that are part of the shift in consumer trends and help transform our stores’ business model.

“Our group is actively pursuing its omnichannel innovation strategy with this unique programme, reinforcing exclusive collaborations with high-potential start-ups that target millennials in particular, and developing new synergies between its online and in-store offering.”

The other lifestyle brands include plant company By Charlot, which offers interior plants with customisable labels; Ciaooo, a natural dietary supplement brand that aims to boost physical and mental wellbeing; and techwear brand SMOON, which specialises in underwear and 'period panties', offering women an alternative to disposable feminine hygiene products.

The programme comes three years after the group launched its Lafayette Plug and Play accelerator, which supports new players in the fashion and retail industries.

Pieter Lammens, Director of Lafayette Brand Booster and Lafayette Plug and Play, added: “The French ecosystem is very fertile ground for lifestyle brands.

“However, when they start out, they often suffer from lack of funding and support from physical distribution networks.

“Lafayette Brand Booster meets those needs and will also foster more synergies between Lafayette Plug and Play’s BtoB start-ups and its own fledgling BtoC enterprises.”

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