The Mallorcan Colmado that found the ‘online’ beauty key

The history of Perfume’s Club dates back to 1950.When the grandfather of his current managers, the Cañellas brothers, returned from Germany and launched a small grocery store in Palma de Mallorca.As the perfumery was what best sold, the new businessman decided.The fact of knowing German opened the doors and allowed him.

The family was very focused on that business, which worked very well, says its current CEO, Gerardo Cañellas.And, as international merchants saw the price differential they offered, they were interested in their products and that is how they initiated the wholesale distribution of perfumery through the firm Nova Engel.

Family relay

When the family relief arrived, the second generation wanted to focus just in this business.They closed the stores and focused on the wholesale distribution, "an activity based on trading, with very large games of luxury perfume marks for few customers," Cañellas explains.And they also started selling large supermarket chains such as Mercadona or Carrefour.A step that some beauty firms saw suspicion, already initiated the two thousand, and decided to remove their linear products, which led the company to suffer a lot and have to reinvent themselves with the third generation of the saga.

In 2007 the company's sales had fallen 75%, about seven million euros, when three years before, their peak, reached 35 million.The young Gerardo Cañellas took over at the head of the company recently finished his university studies.It was 2008.And I had to do the business plan looking for new sales channels.“Luxury brands had retired from supermarkets and trading had complicated by the parallel market, which made it difficult to compete.I had to do something new, ”he recalls.

The e-commerce began to make his steps in the perfume sector, "it was almost non-existent," he says.And found the key.The CEO sought websites from world companies in this industry, says he found just about five with digital sale, and offered his services as a supplier.They had 300 references in stock that were marketed at good prices.He checked after threshing the market, at a time when a recession began that caused an abrupt fall of consumption, which physical and online sellers perceived differently.Cañellas opted for the joy of the Internet.And opened a market among fashion, health and well -being companies that did not market perfumery.And also in the marketplaces of the moment, companies such as Privalia, VP or Letsbonus."We instigate the online sale of perfumery, which at that time was very successful on these platforms," he says.

"In just three months, we went from billing 7 to 8.5 million euros," recalls.He expanded its portfolio of products to makeup, hair articles and cosmetics and, finally, developed an own digital platform to eliminate intermediaries: perfume’s club, which in 2009 managed to double the billing, up to 16 million euros, he recounts.Became the head of the group.

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At 36, Cañellas argues that the three generations have managed to extract potential to the company wherever I was, "it is the success that my family has had in the beauty sector".So when he had to define the mission of society, he chose to focus on the search for opportunities.

Today, Perfume’s Club Invoice 141 million euros, is present in 24 countries, has 105 employees and their benefits before taxes were 11.8 million in 2020.Your business is clearly digital and is distributed between the final consumer and the wholesale distribution (B2C and B2B for its acronym in English), "that feed between them," according to Cañellas.

“We have done very disruptive things in this industry and that is how we have managed to expand a lot.In 2010 we were the only ones we offered in Europe Dropshipping Services [Logistics Model by which products of a third party are sold directly without the need to have them stored] and we were also the first to hire bloggers and mounted them a beauty store forDistribute cosmetic products ”, presumes the entrepreneur, who currently markets 30.000 references from their Meco Distribution Center (Madrid), which has allowed them to be more efficient in costs and delivery times than shipments from Palma de Mallorca, where their headquarters are maintained.

Of the 24 markets in which they sell, those that work are a dozen.Mainly China, the United States and Australia."In others such as Mexico or Poland we have not found a way to be profitable yet," he acknowledges.

The COVID has given them impulse, more than 16% have grown in income, thanks in large part to expand their portfolio of products with masks and hydroalcoholic gels.“In the short term, pandemic affects us positively because our activity focuses on the Internet.But in the long term we do not know what will happen, since the COVID has stirred the industry, which has focused on online trade, which was not among its main objectives.Distributors like Douglas, Primor, El Corte Inglés begin to sell online because Covid has been a catastrophe for its stores.And national and international competition has increased a lot.In addition, our teams are offered to hire them, ”says Cañellas.

Forecasts

For this year the company expects to raise its sales to 150 million euros and its benefits up to 12.5 million."In the first quarter we grew by 40%, but in the second we were below the previous year and now we grow again," says the CEO of Perfumes's Club, who admits "in Spain we have difficulties because there is a fierce war between the greats among the greatsof the sector for not losing market share ".

The firm also works with Amazon and Aliexpress, two other actors who will have much to say in the perfume and cosmetics distribution business, according to the Executive, where they intend to position themselves as a reference, which says they have been for their incursion on the Internet.