This move is part of a larger strategy by the company to simplify operations. The company stated that “the vast majority of Natura &Co trading activity is concentrated on the B3 stock exchange” and that the decreasing trading volume on the NYSE no longer makes it a “compelling option.” 

“The planned delisting of Natura &Co from the New York Stock Exchange is consistent with our long-term strategy for the business,” said Fabio Barbosa, Natura &Co Chief Executive Officer. “This move underscores our continued focus on simplifying our operations to reduce complexity. We thank Natura &Co investors who held ADRs and look forward to welcoming many of them as shareholders on the B3 market. Upholding our dedication to transparency, we will maintain our high disclosure standards through our listing in Brazil.” 

Natura &Co’s delisting is expected to go into effect next month. 

The post Natura &Co Delists from NYSE   first appeared on Direct Selling News.

“Refocused, deleveraged and leaner, Natura &Co will now be able to fully concentrate on its core relationship selling expertise in Latin America while also continuing the optimization of Avon International’s footprint,” said Fábio Barbosa, Group CEO of Natura &Co. 

Barbosa described the deal as “another important step in Natura &Co’s new development cycle to unlock significant value,” and analysts expect proceeds from the sale to create significant dividends for stockholders. 

The post Natura &Co Sells The Body Shop for $254 Million   first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Consolidated gross profit during the quarter reached $1.01 billion, posting a gross margin improvement year-over-year in all business units. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $154 million with a margin of 10%.  

The company ended the quarter with net cash of $143 million. 

“Avon International posted broadly stable top line and further margin improvements, reaching high-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margin,” said Fábio Barbosa, Group CEO of Natura &Co. “The proceeds from the sale of Aesop, closed in late August, enabled us to quickly advance in our liability management plan, with more than half of our debt already prepaid by the end of the quarter. This is an important step to unlock sustainable value for our investors and deliver on our financial priorities of maintaining a strong capital structure, strict financial discipline on costs and expenses, and boosting cash conversion. On the latter, we reached a neutral cash generation this quarter despite the normal seasonal cash consumption to build up inventories for the holiday season. Furthermore, marking the third year of our sustainability vision, after having made substantial progress towards our goals set in 2020, our approach has evolved. We have realigned our metrics, and targets to address the pressing concerns of our time. We have been a partner of the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) for over fifteen years and together we will work towards Natura &Co’s adoption of regenerative practices to deliver even more positive impact. Finally, we recently announced updates related to The Body Shop sale process and we will keep the market informed of any relevant news. This is another important step to continue to streamline our business, a journey started in the second half of 2022. We are confident that our enhanced capital structure, combined with a laser-focus strategy on our key priorities, will allow us to unlock significant value for our shareholders in the future through both topline growth and margin expansion.”   

The post Natura &Co Posts $1.54 Billion in Q3 2023 Net Revenue   first appeared on Direct Selling News.

In April, Natura &Co entered into an agreement to sell Aesop to L’Oréal as part of its efforts to strengthen and deleverage its balance sheet and focus on further optimization of Avon International’s footprint and integration in Latin America. 

The company said it would not guarantee that the exploration of strategic alternatives for The Body Shop would result in a transaction. 

The post Natura &Co Considers Selling The Body Shop  first appeared on Direct Selling News.

The company saw a net loss of $146 million with a consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $151 million. Continued challenges with The Body Shop, which saw a 12.5% decline in net revenue, as well as an expected drop in Avon’s Home & Style category in Latam offset progress. 

“Natura & Co’s second-quarter performance continued to show the improvement already observed in Q1, with low-single digit top line growth at constant currency and a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin,” said Fábio Barbosa, Natura &Co Group CEO. “This was mainly driven by gross margin, benefiting from mix effects, partially offset by investments and inflation. We look forward to delivering our strategy, continuing to position Natura &Co on the course towards strong profitability and low leverage, allowing us to pursue meaningful and sustainable growth in the future.” 

The post Natura &Co Posts Q2 2023 Net Revenue of $1.5 Billion   first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Aesop’s reported revenue last year was $537 million, a huge leap from $28 million in 2012, when Natura acquired a 65% stake in the company. Since Natura formally bought the company in 2016, Aesop’s growth momentum has outperformed Natura’s other direct selling brands Avon and The Body Shop, and continues to show increased growth potential in international markets. Aesop’s new retail stores in China have become top revenue generators.  

“Aesop taps into all of today’s ascending currents and L’Oreal will contribute to unleash its massive growth potential, notably in China and Travel retail,” said L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus in a statement. 

This sale is part of a larger strategy by Natura CEO Fabio Barbosa to simplify the company’s structure and cut costs. It is also expected to help reduce the company’s debts and aid in turning around its other businesses. 

“With a strengthened financial structure and a deleveraged balance sheet, Natura & Co, exercising strict financial discipline, will be able to sharpen its focus on its strategic priorities, notably our investment plan in Latin America,” Barbosa said. 

The acquisition is expected to finalize in the third quarter of this year. 

The post Natura &Co Sells Aesop to L’Oreal  first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Net revenue for Avon International and The Body Shop both declined more than 20% in BRL during the quarter and 9.9% and 8.4% at constant currency, respectively. For the full year, Avon International posted a net revenue decline of 22.9%. The Body Shop also saw a significant decline in full year net revenue of 24.3%. 

Aesop revenues were more stable, with fourth quarter net revenues that saw a 2.1% decline in BRL but an 18.2% increase in constant currency. For the full year, Aesop net revenues experienced a 4.6% increase in BRL, or 21% increase at constant currency. 

Although the company wields an omnichannel strategy, traditional direct selling still generates 70% of the company’s overall net revenue. Retail was the second greatest revenue generator at 19%. 

“We started 2022 navigating in a challenging macroenvironment, which worsened with the war in Ukraine, and uncertainty surrounding the performance of a few business units after a post-pandemic change in consumer behavior,” said Fabio Barbosa, Natura &Co Group Chief Executive Officer. “In this environment, we decided in mid-2022 to reassess the group’s growth model to enter a new stabilization cycle. Important changes were carried out, such as a stronger focus on profitability and cash conversion (with incentives adjusted accordingly), a revision of the cost structure and the role of the Holding company, alongside important revisions in our global footprint in order to position the business for success going forward.” 

The company also announced its plans for restructuring the brands to maximize shareholder value and streamline efficiencies within key retail channels. 

“Structural steps to create sustainable shareholder value are in motion in all our brands,” Barbosa said. “At Natura &Co Latam, we are accelerating the integration of Natura and Avon in order to capture the full benefits of the combination in the region. At Aesop, we are evaluating strategic options aiming to improve the company’s capital structure. At Avon International, we are continuing to optimize its geographic footprint in order to concentrate on profitable markets while reducing the cost structure. At The Body Shop, we are rightsizing the business, focusing on efficiencies and the core retail model in the face of the challenging channel mix changes it has experienced.” 

The post Natura &Co Posts Net Loss of $169.7 Million in Q4 2022  first appeared on Direct Selling News.

The Bravo Global Good Award award honors companies that take a proactive approach to environmental, philanthropic and social responsibility issues. In this, its second year of existence, the DSN Awards Panel chose to recognize the incredible work being done by Natura &Co.

Natura &Co is a group of four purpose-driven businesses, Avon, Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop, that believes that business can—and should—be a force for good. That’s why in June 2020, they launched their Commitment to Life Sustainability Vision to do their part in tackling some of the world’s most urgent and challenging issues including:

• Addressing the climate crisis and protecting the Amazon;
• Defending human rights and being what they call “human kind;” and
• Embracing circularity and regeneration.

They strive to always balance profit with people and the planet. They also believe that what gets measured gets done, so these ambitious goals are diligently measured against 31 metrics and targets to ensure Natura &Co is a company that always gives back to the world more than it takes.

We recently sat down with Ana Costa, Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs for Natura &Co Latin America to get her thoughts on how their commitment to be a force for good in the world is helping their business and the planet in equally impactful ways.

Creating Opportunity for Everyone

One integral part in Natura &Co’s overarching mission to make the world a better place through its Commitment to Life is to defend human rights and be “human kind” by creating stringent metrics surrounding inclusion and diversity.

“We believe that a truly inclusive workforce focuses on all aspects of culture, including gender, but also beyond it,” explained Costa. “And with diversity comes greater innovation and creativity; a breadth of skills and perspectives; and higher employee morale. These are benefits that every business should welcome.”

When it comes to women in leadership, Natura &Co’s aim was to go beyond the UN SDG goal of 30 percent of women in leadership, increasing their goal to 50 percent by 2023. They hit that mark two years early in 2021, reaching a 50.4 percent balance.

But Natura &Co plans to go even farther. As Costa shared, “We have also committed to delivering a living wage for our people in more than 100 countries by 2023 and are working towards 30 percent inclusion of underrepresented groups across our management levels. This includes six factors: ethnicity, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, sexual diversity, gender identity and physical or mental disability.

Protecting the Environment

Natura &Co. recognizes the importance of protecting the planet and doing its part to maintain the highest standards of sustainability, integrity and transparency. That is why the company made a bold commitment to become Net Zero across their entire value chain.

To do this, they have pledged to set science-based targets across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2022. These goals—both short and long-term—are in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative. “We’ve been working with the Carbon Trust to consolidate our organizational footprints,” Costa explained. “Throughout 2021, our first step to address our ambition to become Net Zero was to create a task force consisting of people from the group and the brands to calculate our GHG (greenhouse gas) inventory and create a GHG inventory baseline for Natura &Co.”

Additionally, Natura &Co is the world’s largest B Corp which means they are certified as a company that meets the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

“Being a B Corp means striving for continuous improvement, which is what we all will need to do to create a fairer, more sustainable world. We will never stop reaching higher and going further to generate positive impact,” Costa said.

Making a Difference

Natura &Co’s commitment to being a positive force in the world—both for the environment and for human rights—is impressive and makes them a deserving recipient of the Bravo Global Good Award. Costa accepted the award on behalf of the company via video during the DSN Global Celebration.

“Our channel has proven to be more resilient and relevant than ever before, showing that direct selling can make a great contribution and difference to our society,” she said. “Receiving the Global Good Award is proof that Natura &Co is on a good path. We’d like to express our sincere gratitude and honor at receiving this award. Thank you!”

From the June 2022 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post Natura &Co / Creating Real and Lasting Change first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Corporate Social Responsibility is an expectation, the price of entry to succeed and remain relevant in business.

We are what we say; what we do; how we do it; and what we choose not to do. Our products, the programs we initiate, the technological and social advancements we usher forth—they all matter. They comprise a corporate footprint that impacts the planet and every man, woman and child who inhabit it.

Wrestling with policy decisions, manufacturing choices and how and when to speak out and act on social issues happens daily, as business leaders face stakeholders who expect corporate words and branding to match their deeds, and 21st century transparency leaves inauthentic players vulnerable.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)—the umbrellas under which diversity/inclusion, sustainability, philanthropy, social justice, human rights, compliance and regulation live—is an expectation. It is simply the price of entry to succeed and remain relevant in business. It’s also an opportunity for businesses to look beyond profits, focus on people and become the change makers the world so desperately needs.

Speaking Up, Speaking Out

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently posed a thought-provoking question during a National Public Radio interview. “Is business the greatest platform for change?”

In his third decade leading the San Francisco-based Fortune 500 company, Benioff believes CEOs wield tremendous power and it is their duty to use that power for good. “Good” means different things to different people, but for Benioff it has meant leveraging strength as a large-scale employer with the ability to relocate thousands of jobs when Indiana legislated LGBTQ discrimination and most recently pushing back against a controversial Texas abortion ban and offering to help Salesforce employees exit Texas if they chose do so.

Benioff is no stranger to controversy surrounding issues he believes would adversely impact Salesforce staff, but corporate public advocacy like this was once rare for fear of alienating customers and shareholders. However recent events like the killing of George Floyd compelled many corporate executives to publicly take on racial inequality, among other social issues, within their own companies.

CEOs now understand that a microphone comes with the job. While switching it on comes at their discretion, more corporate leaders are choosing to become a public voice that devalues bad, unethical and tone-deaf behavior, while leading and promoting actions that benefit the greater good.

The direct selling industry consists of and serves an incredibly diverse global marketplace of culturally varied distributors and affiliates empowered economically to serve customers—people of all types with all manner of interests and education and backgrounds. The industry’s reach—when considered from this view—blows the mind. How we choose or choose not to do business matters more than ever.

Learning Our Way to Better

Enormous potential exists for the direct selling industry within the environmental, social and governance pillars that comprise what we think of as Corporate Social Responsibility.

Research by IO Sustainability, an international research and consulting firm studying how sustainability and CSR initiatives are good for business, shows that corporate-wide CSR integration:

• Enhanced sales by as much as 20 percent
• Increased productivity 13 percent
• Reduced employee turnover by half
• Created a “reputation dividend” worth up to 11 percent of market capitalization
• Increased company share price by up to 6 percent
• Reduced financial and litigation risk, the cost of equity and the cost of borrowing

Other studies show that CSR/ESG initiatives can improve brand equity and reputation, gain favor with younger consumers, increase loyalty, command a premium price for goods, increase employee satisfaction and productivity as well as attract business investors.

Plus, it’s simply the right thing to do.

Earlier this year, the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) mounted an Advocacy Committee to work on CSR/ESG from an industry perspective. It’s a three-year initiative with USDSA to enhance industry reputation holistically, using CSR/ESG advocacy and good corporate citizenship as a model. Ryan Napierski, Nu Skin President/CEO, is the chair.

According to Napierski, reputation is one of the most important pillars of future success. It’s a collective sum. Corporate responsibility, social issues, gender equality and philanthropy—this advocacy work improves the reputation of the industry.

“The opportunities ahead of us, as we look at the macro trends, see the gig economy evolving, social commerce and word-of-mouth marketing through influencer marketing all taking form, there’s a real opportunity ahead for us—commercially speaking—to grow our industry. But we acknowledge as well, that we need to do it the right way,” Napierski explained.

Advocacy has been fundamental to direct selling since the inception of many legacy companies. Shaklee was “green” in the 1950s before anyone really knew what that meant. 135 years on, Avon is still committed to empowering women, donating more than $1.1 billion to gender-based violence and breast cancer awareness initiatives, while parent company Natura &Co has been carbon neutral since 2007 and earned top U.N. environmental awards in 2015 and 2019. Early cause marketing adopter Pampered Chef has a decades-long partnership with Feeding America.

WFDSA’s 2020 Direct Selling Worldwide Corporate Philanthropy Survey showed 92 percent of 37 participating companies sponsor or support philanthropic activities. The “how”s and “why”s of this support vary widely, of course, and responses were voluntary. This snippet does not include the long-standing charitable commitments of many larger companies or grass-roots endeavors of smaller ones that contribute to the greater good. On its face, the small response is not in keeping with the enormity of the global industry or the untapped power that direct selling could muster in the CSR/ESG space.

“Right now, we can be proud of what we’re doing, but our leadership wants to do more. We can do that by institutionalizing and socializing best practices, publicizing that it’s happening and encouraging people to do more,” Adolfo Franco, USDSA’s Executive Vice President, COO and Counsel explained.

CSR/ESG initiatives exist within nearly all direct selling companies, Franco believes, and the committee aims to amass industry data to create a playbook of best practices, resources and training so companies can advocate effectively and learn to leverage other organizations for the best return on contributions.

Doing Good is Good Business

The idea is to develop CSR/ESG as a corporate and industry philosophy and to learn by example from companies like Natura &Co.

“Natura &Co is the result of long-held ideals of contributing towards a more conscious, collaborative and just society. Our business model holds us accountable to balance profit and purpose which is why we’ll always report our social and environmental performance with the same transparency as we do our financial performance,” shared Marcelo Behar, Natura &Co, Vice President of Group Affairs and Sustainability.

Natura &Co’s purpose is fully integrated, and their goal is to always create solutions which reconcile economic, social and environmental impacts. As such, Natura &Co is a Certified B Corporation—the largest in the world—joining more than 4,000 companies representing 153 industries in 77 countries unified to balance purpose and profit and legally required to consider the impact of decisions on workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment. Collectively, Certified B Corporations are driving a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

Granted, not every company may set Certified B Corporation as its goal, but doing good is a good business philosophy.

Nu Skin included CSR/ESG as part of their founding mission in 1984, but as time passed and they learned more about sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, it evolved into a vital part of their corporate structure and culture.

“The founders set the tone, but I am so thrilled to work with the current executive team that is absolutely committed to being a force for good and carrying that mission on. It is part of our regular work conversation,” Ruth Todd, Nu Skin, Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs said.

For their humanitarian efforts, including raising $13 million for the Force for Good Foundation through cause marketing sales of Epoch products, sponsoring 25,000 life-saving heart surgeries for children, their ongoing sustainability initiatives aimed at reducing their overall carbon footprint and myriad other good works, Nu Skin earned the first-ever Direct Selling News Bravo Global Good Award this year.

Amway’s philosophy has remained the same for decades, focused on helping people live better, healthier lives by taking care of the communities in which they live and do business. But like Nu Skin, how they serve has changed over the years as current events, global initiatives and people’s needs evolve.

“It’s important to bring your employees, entrepreneurs and customers along with you on the journey. They will be the drivers, volunteers and voice for the strategies you develop and the goals you set,” explained Will Templeton, Global Amway Brand, Sustainability and CSR Director.

Since 2015 Amway has tracked their sustainable manufacturing reduction initiatives, and by the end of 2020, they surpassed goals for reducing total energy use, increasing alternate energy use and reducing greenhouse gases.

These long-range sustainability goals impact the planet, but are harder for consumers to connect with. Packaging advancements associated with a product launch like Artistry Skin Nutrition make their efforts clear. Amway reduced plastic use by 21 percent compared to previous skincare lines. That’s equivalent to removing more than 13.2 million water bottles from the environment annually. They also reduced annual paper use by 57,000 pounds; offset 100 percent of their electricity usage through investment in sustainable wind power; and operate as a 90 percent landfill-free manufacturing facility.

“This is good business. I really think our companies are doing this because they believe in causes. They believe in philanthropy personally, so leadership is committed to doing this. But this is the realization, unlike 20 years ago, companies’ positions on where they put their money is particularly important to young consumers. They watch the activities of companies and their causes very, very closely,” Franco said.

Napierski believes direct selling as a whole must hold itself to a higher standard. “If we are not authentic as a company or as an industry, if we are not authentically thinking about our footprint in all dimensions—our reputation in all dimensions—we simply aren’t servicing the customers we’re intending to attract,” he shared.

The Social Impact of Partnerships

When companies lack CSR/ESG authenticity, they wind up making shallow, transactional commitments. Think publicly advocating for gender equity but employing few female managers and at lower pay than their male counterparts. This is not how a company or industry builds social capital to positively impact reputation, bottom line or the greater good.

Paula Berezin is a recognized social impact leader and CEO/Chief Strategist of Social Capital, a company she founded in 2001 with offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Berezin’s sweet spot is helping nonprofits work with corporations to build multifaceted public/private partnerships that hit on multiple cylinders.

“Our lens is really helping best-practice partnerships come together to, at the highest order, improve society or improve a shared mission and—at the center of the partnership—meet everybody’s shared goals,” Berezin said.

Her clients—including American Cancer Society, Feeding America and United Way Worldwide—seek deeper, stronger relationships with existing corporate partners whose CSR/ESG philosophies can advance change-making agendas.

“CSR/ESG is the combination of business practices for sustainable solutions as well as their assets beyond money, which is their people, their talent, their brain trust, their business models,” Berezin explained.

“We really believe that part of our power is having trusted, long-standing partnerships that connect to our purpose. It enables us to have real conversations about ways we can best support our partners that will spark excitement with our community,” Terry Haley, Pampered Chef’s CMO, said.

One of Pampered Chef’s long-standing partners is Feeding America, the nonprofit organization Founder Doris Christopher initially connected with three decades ago to help with the U.S. domestic hunger crisis and support the company’s mission to enhance the quality of family life.

“We’ve harnessed that with a focused program our consultants and customers can tap into year-round by shopping for a cause, hosting a fundraising party or rounding up any order to make a difference,” Haley shared.

Pampered Chef stands out to Berezin as a company that uses their business prowess to do good. They use sellers as mission messengers to help raise funds and awareness around the cause, grow it and eventually become a model from which others benefit.

There is enormous power in partnership—large-scale and localized power—for direct selling companies of all sizes to make a difference in people’s lives. Nu Skin partners with Feed the Children to distribute Vitameal to 120,000 hungry kids around the world every day. While Amway employees have volunteered more than 17,000 hours pouring cement, building picnic tables and shoveling mulch to create 23 kid-designed play spaces in three states through their 20-year partnership with KABOOM!

Authentic, Impactful, Lasting Change

The lesser known efforts of smaller direct selling companies shine equally bright in their ability to leverage their products, their people and their business philosophies to creatively change the world one person or family at a time.

Partnering with Head Start, a school readiness program for children from low-income families, Simply Fun works with center directors to engage parents and encourage family play to meet children’s developmental needs. Their timely, pre-pandemic release of a game called Wake Up Stars, which helps children and their parents learn how to identify and express emotions, made a difference for kids, their families and Head Start employees working one-on-one with them.

Founder and CEO Patty Pearcy takes her company’s social responsibility efforts seriously and makes them personal. Corporations, in her experience, write checks and then go about the business of doing business. She believes social responsibility is about family, and everyone that Simply Fun touches is family. “I think that’s how you look at what you contribute down the road. What would you do for your family? What is your responsibility to your family?”

She continued, “It isn’t just about giving dollars. Frankly, if you can give time or product that fits within a giving scenario, that’s the jam, right? Organizations can get money from a lot of places, but they can’t get your time, your caring and a product that actually moves their agenda forward.”

Pushing a cause forward means removing roadblocks and that’s what Cara Brook, Founder/CEO of Seint set out to do in a most creative way. As a foster parent and advocate, she wanted to encourage people who had the desire, means and situation to become foster parents.

“The child that needs them is down the street, and they don’t know it. But if that child came to their door, they would never say no. It would be so much more real. I just wanted to make it real and answer their questions,” Brook said.

Brook started a Seint cause marketing campaign and enlisted the expertise of an experienced film maker and scriptwriter, both veterans of the foster system. She created Seint’s Love is Never Wasted Foundation and helped finance a short film of the same name.

Infused with reality—a foster child making sense of how he fits into two lives with two mothers; the protective instincts of a resistant foster dad; the bittersweet heartbreak of a child rejoining a biological parent—the film’s narrative answers questions for potential foster parents in workshops and builds awareness with every online view.

Connecting her company to the cause, Brook shared, has helped Seint attract people with similar goals and hearts that are in the right place. “It makes everything more worthwhile and meaningful, even outside the success of the company. But, of course, if people are happy, doing well and finding meaning in their work, they do their best work—and that creates success.”

When it comes to CSR/ESG, Pure Romance CEO Chris Cicchinelli said, “What’s hard to do is to actually get involved, help and find the places where it’s not just writing a check. It’s how you get on the ground and help that next group of people who really need us to support them.”

For Pure Romance, it’s happened organically…twice. First in 2005, when Cicchinelli watched his mother and company founder Patty Brisben’s anger rise as a doctor scolded a young cancer survivor in public, saying sex was a luxury, and she should just be grateful to be alive. Brisben could not tolerate the dismissive tone and message.

Since then, the Patty Brisben Foundation for Women’s Sexual Health has funded over $4 million in women’s sexual health, post-cancer and pain disorder grants and studies at Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, as well as universities in Arkansas, Indiana and Ohio.

It happened once again when Cicchinelli’s then eight-year-old daughter, born biologically as a boy, started talking about being a girl. Cicchinelli privately created the Living with Change Foundation and made a $3 million contribution to the University of Cincinnati and Children’s Hospital to fund a resource center for LGBTQI youth and their families.

“All of us at the senior levels and owners of these organizations, we need to use our microphones for better, for change, for making people feel safer, fighting for people that can’t fight for themselves,” Cicchinelli explained.

The decision was not without controversy when Cicchinelli took up his daughter’s cause within the company. A few Pure Romance consultants walked out, but he kept steady to the mission. “People need to be educated, and we’ve got to give them time. Just because they don’t understand, doesn’t mean they are not willing to understand in the future,” he explained.

And they have. Hearts and minds have changed within his company and the Midwestern city that they call home.

“When you’re trying to make a change and really educate people and do something that nobody else is willing to talk about, it’s tough and you feel like you’re by yourself. But that’s the road that change makers must go down. Building a business isn’t easy, giving back and making sure that you’re fighting for the right people isn’t easy either,” shared Cichinelli. “If it was, everyone else would’ve been fighting for them in the beginning.”

“Authenticity of message to consumers is part and parcel of not only raising money and awareness for the causes you support, but also being able to leverage it into your business plan and know that all these things work together for success,” Franco explained.

More and more today, direct selling companies of all sizes are taking a stance, throwing their weight, resources and voices into advocacy for CSR/ESG causes on behalf of people and the planet. In doing so with authentic intention, they show their customers, employees, distributors, vendors, regulators and the public at large who they are and what they believe in.

Companies with CSR/ESG business philosophies and the industries to which they belong have stories worth telling and as they perpetuate their commitments and live out their social missions, they can expect to enjoy enhanced reputations, deeper customer loyalty, increases to their bottom lines and the bold label of change maker. DSN

Take Up a Cause

“For any organization, I don’t think about it as a question of should you. It’s a question of how. It’s not about co-opting a charity or just finding something to align with. Look inward to your organizational values. What inspires the people that work for your organization? What motivates your stakeholders? What mission or purpose is rooted in the company’s inception? That’s where the magic exists.”– Terry Haley, Pampered Chef, CMO

Seek an Authentic Cause

• Do something that aligns with a philosophical mission involving parts of society you want to improve.
• Do something that aligns with your image and brand.
• Do something that motivates or rewards staff, employees, direct sellers and constituents.
• Do something equally important to customers or the community.

Commit

• Cash donations need to be commensurate to the credit you desire.
• Partner for greater impact.
• Giftable assets include your people, their talents, the company’s brain trust and business model.
• Tell people what you are doing. It’s a story worth sharing.

From the December 2021 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post The Business of Doing Good. first appeared on Direct Selling News.

The company’s third quarter efforts continued its advances on key strategic initiatives to fuel future growth, including the implementation of Avon’s new commercial model and an acceleration in digital tools. For the first time in five years, Avon’s total sales showed a 10.7% growth in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year.  

Natura &Co Group also announced the launch of a share repurchase plan of up to R$ 1.5 billion and is in the process of evaluating a switch to the NYSE while maintaining a dual listing with the Brazilian Depositary Receipts (BDRs). 

“Despite a very tough comparable vs last year, when we grew over 20%, and some persistent external headwinds related to the global pandemic, Natura &Co continues to progress on its key initiatives, attesting to the underlying strength of our business,” said Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman and Group CEO. “We again outperformed the global Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrances market on a year-to-date basis and versus pre-pandemic levels, all our brands and businesses posted growth over nine months and the Group’s digitalization continued to advance. We also made major headway on the integration of Avon. With a further roll-out of Avon’s new commercial model, continued deployment of social selling tools at Natura, new conversions to The Body Shop’s new store concept and preparations for an entry onto the Chinese market at Aesop well underway, we have a number of initiatives to fuel growth in 2022 and beyond.” 

Net revenue was up 14.4% (R$28.5 billion) over the first nine months of the year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.1%. Net income reached R$352.6 million, which reversed a loss from the same period last year of R$827.6 million. 

Consolidated net revenue in the third quarter was down 4.2% to R$9.5 billion, which reflected a record-high comparable base.  

Online sales and social selling accounted for 52% of the company’s total revenue. 

Avon International’s net revenue decreased 14.3% in the third quarter, but was up 6.3% in the first nine months. Online sales for the company were also up 19%. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 3.9% in the third quarter. 

Net revenue for The Body Shop was up 0.4% in the third quarter and 20.6% in the first nine months. Online and at-home channels remain twice as high as pre-pandemic levels. Third quarter EBITDA margin was 18%. 

The post Natura &Co Reports Slight Decline in Q3 first appeared on Direct Selling News.