Cosmetics brand Fresh enters new European markets

By

Sarah Ahssen

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Mar 25, 2021

US cosmetics brand Fresh is turbo-charging its European distribution via the e-shop of Sephora, the selective perfumery chain owned by LVMH. A choice of retailing partner that is by no means random, since Fresh, founded in 1991 in Boston by Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, was acquired by the French luxury giant in 2000.

Since March 1, Fresh cosmetics are available in nine new countries: Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Turkey. Fresh began its European journey in 2015, when it was first commercialised in French department stores, and has been broadening its European footprint since 2018.   

“The first country we entered after France was Germany, in 2018, then Poland in 2019 and Italy in 2020. We are introducing our products in these countries exclusively through Sephora, and recently we have also extended our online distribution to every European country where Sephora operates,” said Fresh, which is now present either virtually or physically in 13 European nations.  

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Fresh’s European sales are reportedly growing robustly and currently account for just under 10% of the brand’s global sales, whose value the company did not disclose. And while Fresh’s leading markets are Asia and the USA, its goal is to turn Europe into “another key market within 10 years.”
 
France, where Fresh is distributed via 200 of the approximately 1,000 stores it reaches in Europe, is currently the brand’s prime market in the region. Fresh intends to rely on the e-tail channel to a greater degree in order to attract new customers, hoping to up its game as it did in the UK. 

“In the UK, the share of digital sales is much higher, and Fresh online purchases have reached a maturity beyond that of physical store sales. It’s a fine example of digital best practices, one we are trying to replicate in the rest of Europe. At Sephora, our online sales are better than the average of skincare products, because we are managing to convey online all the attributes that make Fresh a unique brand: our products’ textural feel, their effectiveness and especially a focus on expert advice and customer feed-back,” said Fresh.