With its consumer brands and its offer to professionals, the century-old family business is continuing its development with strong international objectives. Eugène Perma has succeeded in developing its formulas by anticipating the evolution of consumer expectations, especially towards more naturalness. Cécile Martin, the group’s marketing director, outlined its strategic objectives to Premium Beauty News.
Founded in 1919 by Eugène Sutter in Paris, the Eugène Perma group draws on more than 100 years of hair expertise, particularly in hair coloration and hair care. Bought and led by Didier Martin since 1995, the family business now distributes its activity between mass distribution and professional brands for hair salons.
Eco-designed formulas and packs
The Eugène Perma Professionnel business unit offers various ranges of hair care products and shampoos with the ranges, Essentiel, Collections Nature et Artist(e), relaunched at the beginning of 2023, and hair colouration with Carmen Rituel.
“Carmen Rituel, which was launched at the end of 2020, demonstrates our expertise in hair colouration in terms of R&D. Its routine, with 95% ingredients of natural origin and enriched with organic plant oils, is formulated with no ammonia, no PPD, no resorcinol and no mineral oils, with exceptional colour results,” states Cécile Martin.
This approach in favour of naturalness is also found in the consumer brands with, alongside the emblematic brand Pétrole Hahn, or Eugène Color, the Nat&Nov BIO brand, a pioneer in organic shampoos and hair treatments sold in supermarkets.
“Nat&Nove BIO is an organic brand where we worked a lot on sensoriality without ever compromising on performance. It is also a committed brand that supports the French production of organic active ingredients, with vegan formulas as are all our formulas,” adds the manager.
For all our product categories, the desire to move towards eco-designed formulas without compromising on customer experience and sensoriality is the group’s leitmotiv.
“We follow a tradition of optimal respect for the hair, we feel it is our responsibility, so we carefully select quality ingredients, preferably natural or organic and locally produced where possible. We aim to strengthen our hair expertise by investing in R&D, to develop ever more effective products, with high-quality formulas and sensory textures,” explains Cécile Martin.
The group is also working on the sustainability of its packaging, in line with the 2025 regulatory requirements. The packs are recyclable and include up to 50% recycled materials.
A strong international ambition
Already present in 40 different countries, the group’s objective is to double its international development.
“We are already carrying out prospecting missions in China, the United States and South Korea. We are also developing some specific products for certain markets, and we are taking into account foreign markets in our numerous relaunches. However, trends are overlapping one another, like the “skinification” of hair products, and with 400 references we manage to cater for all needs,” says Cécile Martin.
Apart from aerosols and lightening powders, more than 90% of the group’s hair products are manufactured in the Reims factory, which was inaugurated in 2004 and Ecocert Cosmos certified since 2018.
“We have a strong territorial anchorage with an important CSR approach. Of our 200 suppliers, more than 82% are located in France and more than 96% in Europe. We make sure to promote short circuits,” notes the manager.
The French group now aims to strengthen its hair expertise in colouration and deep hair care.
“Our objective is to invest in modernizing, simplifying and increasing the expertise of our offers”, concludes Cécile Martin.
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