By JOHN AUSTIN
'' & --> '' & -->This can be an ugly time to look in the mirror if you’re a beauty executive.
Department-store sales for "prestige" beauty products are down $4 billion for the first half of the year. Even cosmetics giants such as Estee Lauder, which announced this month that it would shut down its high-end Prescriptives cosmetics line by Jan. 31, are hurting.
But while the Lauder brand is backing away from the cosmetics counter, a lower-priced household name is busy building up its bricks-and-mortar beauty business.
It’s Avon calling.
Avon Products has about 200 licensed Avon beauty centers in the U.S., including more than a dozen in Texas. But they’re relatively new in North Texas.
Long a direct-sales dynamo known for its person-to-person "Avon calling" campaigns and catalogs, the company now has its first licensed Avon beauty center on this side of the Metroplex, and the couple who own the store like what they’ve seen.
"It’s always good to be the first in," said owner Rusty DeBlassie, who in August added Avon to the mix at the Wild and Chic Boutique, which he and his wife, Yvette, operate in downtown Weatherford. They decided to try the line after seeing their first Avon store in north Dallas this year.
"I think we can make this work," said Rusty, 39. They devote about 70 percent of their floor space to Avon clothing, skin-care products and fragrances.
"The nice thing about cosmetics is, they’re small," he said. "On a per-square-foot basis, you can use the space more profitably."
Daryn DeZengotita, who has her own Avon store in north Dallas, first tried the concept four years ago with a display in a friend’s Curves fitness center.
"We set up the display, and it went really well," DeZengotita said. "It sort of just grew and grew."
She now has the DeBlassies and other retailers, including locations in Rowlett and Wylie, under her in Avon’s multilevel marketing network. As a "leadership representative," she receives a percentage of what her beauty-center owners order from Avon.
Rusty DeBlassie said the typical sale at the Weatherford store is about $30 to $40, which won’t buy a jar of overnight cream at some department store cosmetics counters. And he and DeZengotita think that given the economy, frugality is here to stay.
"Women are just not going to spend what they were spending at Neiman Marcus’ cosmetics counter," DeZengotita said. "They’re not going back."
Likewise, getting into the business is affordable. Apart from securing retail space, having an Avon account in good standing and three months of experience as an Avon sales representative, the only payment to Avon is a $10 fee. And unlike franchisees, beauty-center owners don’t pay monthly royalties or fees.
The company is not immune to the recession, however. In the first half of 2009, worldwide sales fell 11 percent, to $4.6 billion.
Still, a Kansas City-area Avon store owner thinks the company is making a smart strategic move by using a retail presence to target women during the recession. Elizabeth Demas, who owns an outlet in Overland Park, Kan., said she believes that customers will stick with Avon when the economy comes back, even if they can then afford higher-priced goods.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Avon Representatives featured in Fort Worth Star Telegram on September 29, 2009
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