Avon Products

Avon Products founder, David H. McConnell, initially sold books as a door-to-door salesman to New York homes. In September 1886, he decided to sell perfumes rather than books. He started the new business in a small office at 126 Chambers Street, Manhattan, New York. McConnell changed the company name in 1892. His business partner suggested calling it the "California Perfume Company." His business partner was living in California at the time and suggested the name because of the abundance of flowers in California. On January 28, 1916, the California Perfume Company was incorporated in the state of New York. McConnell, Henderson, and William Scheele were listed as company officials. In March 1973, Avon Products was selling on Wall Street for $140, by August 1974 it had dropped to $25. International expansion Avon Products sells products in over 100 countries. Brazil is the company's largest market, passing the United States in 2010. Avon Products entered the Chinese market in 1990. earlier reports said that Avon rejected the bid, stating "At the time, the board concluded, and it still believes, that Coty's indication of interest is opportunistic and not in the best interest of Avon's shareholders." In March 2016, Cerberus Capital Management paid $435 million in cash for preferred stock in Avon Products. This move was the conclusion of a deal initiated in December 2015, when Avon sold 80.1 percent of its North American Business to Cerberus for $170 million. The total value of the deal was $605 million. The investment resulted in Cerberus having an almost 17 percent stake in Avon Products. In January 2020, Natura & Co closed the acquisition of Avon Products, Inc. At the time, The Natura & Co group also included Natura, Aesop, and The Body Shop, and with the acquisition of Avon had created the world's fourth-largest pure-play beauty company. Recent history In 2014, Avon Product's global sales had fallen for five straight years, and its North American revenues fell 18% that year. In March 2015, Avon Products was removed from the S&P 500 after being on it for 50 years. In 2016, Avon Products completed the separation of its United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico business as New Avon LLC, which also trades with the "Avon" name. As part of a three-year plan, the global Avon Products relocated its headquarters to London in the United Kingdom. In July 2018, Avon Products sold its last factory in the United States to the Fareva Group. In August 2019, New Avon LLC, the privately held North American company that split from Avon Products, Inc. (Avon Worldwide) in 2016 entered into a definitive agreement with South Korean consumer goods giant LG Household & Health Care, Ltd., which purchased the direct-selling cosmetics business for $125 million in cash. Jan Zijderveld was appointed the company's CEO in February 2018. On May 22, 2019, the Brazilian beauty company Natura agreed to buy Avon Products for more than $2 billion, shareholders approved the purchase in November. creating the world's fourth-largest beauty company. Under the deal's terms, Natura will hold 76% of the combined business with over $10 billion in annual revenue. After the purchase Avon Products stoped trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In November 2023, Avon announced it would open stores in the United Kingdom for the first time in the company's history, augmenting its already existing network of 63 stores in Turkey. However, in August 2024, Avon Products filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to settle its talc-based lawsuits. In September 2025, it was announced that Natura will sell Avon International to Regent LP for £1. The sale does not include Avon's Latin American and Russian operations, which will continue to be owned by Natura. The sale was completed on December 31, 2025. In February 2026, Natura sold Avon Russia to the Arnest Group for $26.9 million. ==Business model and marketing==

Avon uses both door-to-door salespeople ("Avon ladies", as well as "Avon men") and brochures to advertise its products. Some Avon training centers have a small retail section with skin care products, such as creams, serums, makeup, and washes. Avon recruits sales representatives who sell beauty products, jewelry, accessories, and clothing. The salespeople are not employees, their income is solely based on the sales revenue or recruiting of further salespeople. Some of the brand-names used by the company include Avon Color (including Power Stay, Color Trend Make Up + Care, and Ultra Colour range), Imari, Far Away, Avon Eve, Sk!n, Today Tomorrow Always, Black Suede, Avon Fashions, Anew, Clearskin, Avon Care, Avon Senses, Skin So Soft among others. According to the U.S. government, Avon has 5 million to 6 million sales representatives operating in over 100 countries as of 2014. Avon and its subsidiaries have 40,000 to 50,000 employees, 6,000 of which are in the United States. Avon was an early member of the U.S. Direct Selling Association, which was founded in 1910. The company left the association in 2014, saying that the trade group was not paying enough attention to the industry as a whole. ==Controversies==

American corruption charges Beginning in 2008, the conduct of various employees and executives of Avon Products were investigated for possible violations of the law, including bribery and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In 2014, Avon Products settled the bribery charges for a total of $135 million; $68 million in criminal penalties, with the remainder in interest, disgorgement, and fines from a civil case brought by the SEC. Animal testing Avon Products vowed in 1989 that as a company located in the United States, it would no longer participate in animal testing. Avon has since claimed to be working globally to introduce safer methods of testing cosmetics that do not require animals. These methods include in vitro testing, computer simulations, and testing cosmetics on human volunteers. Because Avon Products is not globally animal-testing free, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has not included Avon Products on their cruelty-free list. In 2019, Avon Products ended all regulatory-required animal testing, making it the first global beauty company selling in China to stop all animal testing of ingredients and products across all its brands by developing new ways to deliver products that do not require animal testing, such as reformulating products. PETA has since announced that it has added Avon Products Inc. to their list of companies "Working for Regulatory Change". == Withdrawal from major markets ==

In October 2013, Avon Products announced the closure of its branch in France at the end of that month. Its French employees accused it of keeping the workers in the dark for months and not acting in line with the company's publicly stated values of being a socially responsible company that upholds values of trust, respect and integrity and a culture of "open and candid communication." As of January 2014, Avon France was in receivership. This was followed by an announcement via Facebook on February 15, 2018, that Avon Australia and New Zealand would close by the end of the year. This decision resulted in the loss of 220 jobs and 21,400 sales representatives. The company has attracted criticism for poor communication with its customers and employees. In January 2024, Avon Products was still active in Russia and is recruiting more people and continuing to manufacture products. ==References==