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PARIS -- Sephora is brushing up its European business even as the rumors continue to swirl that it's up for sale.
Serge Brunschwig, Daniel Richard's successor as president and chief executive officer of the chain since March, is taking decisive steps to make its European division more profitable. His moves come as speculation mounts that LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is looking to sell the chain, with Germany's Douglas touted as a possible buyer. But Douglas is believed to be interested solely in the European operations, while LVMH would likely want to sell off the firm in its entirety. As reported, Sephora will retreat from Japan, where it has seven doors, by yearend following losses estimated upward of $50 million this year.
LVMH has repeatedly denied any sale of Sephora and Douglas will not comment on the rumor.
Meanwhile, Brunschwig is living by the adage "retail is detail." New category managers, back-office infrastructure and heightened in-store service comprise a portion of what he's instigated so far. And there is lots more to come, including regional product offerings.
"The idea for 2001 was not to start a revolution, but to reveal and confirm what Sephora has been about since its creation," explained Brunschwig from the third floor of his red-brick office in the outskirts of Paris, which once housed a chocolate factory. "It was to assert Sephora's genetic code."
Since the birth of the concept in 1973, retail and cosmetics executives from the world over have made the pilgrimage to the stores dreamed up by Sephora founder Dominique Mandonnaud and then acquired by LVMH in 1997. People come to observe the assisted self-service concept Mandonnaud developed for his first stores and to take in design...