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Laboratoires de Biologie Végétale Yves Rocher was established in 1965 to incorporate the local business focused on selling hemorrhoid salve and cosmetics based on traditional recipes through mail orders Yves Rocher ran since 1956. As the mayor of his hometown La Gacilly, France since the late 1950s, Rocher hoped that the establishment of a local business would help create jobs and stop people from fleeing the village in search of work. In 1959 the company opened its botanical garden and a laboratory to experiment with new recipes along with searching for potential ingredients worldwide. In 1965 the company built its first factory and an expanded botanical garden with a modern laboratory named Le Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche en Cosmetologie (Center for the Study and Research of Beauty Care). The same year the company produced its first Green Book of Beauty catalog.[5]
Focused on transforming botanical substances into cosmetic ingredients, Rocher had anticipated the boom of interest in natural cosmetics and ecology in general. In 1969 Yves Rocher launched a new production facility in La Gacilly, and in 1970 the first retail store opened in Paris. The company rapidly expanded its retail network through its stores and selling franchises, and expanded its mail order and retail business to the rest of Europe. By the early 1970s, the company sales had topped Fr 80 million. Yves Rocher avoided public listing and found a strategic partner to fund future growth. In 1973 the 60% share in the company was sold to Elf Aquitaine subsidiary Sanofi, yet Rocher himself retained 57% of the company's voting rights. By 1981 the company reached Fr 1 billion in sales with mail orders accounting for 70%, and retail along with in-home party sales providing the rest.[5]
In 1982 the company's new Center for Applied Research claimed to develop a technique to extract the DNA of certain plants and re-engineer them to produce heightened benefits. The A.D.N Revitalizing Resource line of skincare products based on that research boosted the company sales worldwide up to Fr 2.6 billion by 1984.[5]
