Yves Rocher

Yves Rocher (7 April 1930 – 26 December 2009) was a French businessman and founder of the cosmetics company that bears his name. He was a pioneer of the modern use of natural ingredients in cosmetics.

Yves Rocher was born in the village of La Gacilly, Morbihan, where he grew up. After the death of his father when he was 14, he helped his mother in running the small family textiles business. A local healer taught him the recipe for a hemostatic ointment based on the lesser celandine flower, and he decided to sell the ointment by mail order with adverts in the magazine Ici Paris.

Business career

Natural products and mail order sales were the pillars of the cosmetics company he founded in 1959. His aim was to democratize the access to beauty products. The company grew rapidly and, three years later, he opened his first store. Yves Rocher retired from the company in 1992, passing control to his son Didier, but returned to the helm after Didier's death in 1994.

His grandson Bris was named vice-president in 2007 and took over the company completely after Yves Rocher's death in 2009. The company had an estimated value of two billion euros in 2007 and employs 15,000 people.