Invest KOREA

The Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique (PFDC), famous for the mineral water-using cosmetics brand Avene, has established its Korea branch and revealed its business direction. It spoke about its marketing strategy and social contribution plans during a press interview last Tuesday.

France’s PFDC is the No.1 pharmacy cosmetics player in Europe and the third-largest pharmaceutical company in France. The company’s Avene, Ducray, and A-Derma products are sold in Korea.

“We will differentiate ourselves from other global cosmetics firms by aggressively investing in Korea and taking only profits,” said a PFDC official.

PFDC will establish various foundations, including one related to atopy, based on surveys it took on domestic dermatologists. It also intends to conduct joint R&D projects with domestic researchers. It plans to enter the Korean pharmaceutical market in the near future.

“We are looking for local partners to launch our cures for child hematologic diseases. Although we are focusing on our cosmetics business, we will start advancing into the domestic pharmaceutical industry in a few years,” said a PFDC official.

The company said dermatologic cosmetics have great potential in Korea. Dermatologic cosmetics are estimated to account for 4 percent (KRW 10 trillion) of the domestic cosmetics market.

Korea is the 20th largest dermatologic cosmetics market in the world. A PFDC marketing director forecast that Korea will become the world’s 10th largest dermatologic cosmetics player in the near future.

Source: Yonhap News (Mar. 26, 2013)

** This article was translated from the Korean.