The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 14 2004

Swedish cosmetics for Georgian skin

12,000 cosmetic consultants at work in Georgia and Armenia
By Christina Tashkevich

“My age is how I look,” said Oriflame’s Marketing Manager in
Russia/CIS, Anastasia Kondrashova on Thursday, describing what
success for a woman means to her.

Though not every Georgian woman may agree with the motto, fortunately
for Kondrashova and the Swedish-based cosmetic company she
represents, thousands of women in Georgia believe looking good in
make-up is important.

Oriflame’s Georgia Marketing Manager Irina Kiasashvili explains that
products sell in all of Georgia’s regions, “particularly in towns
like Batumi and Kutaisi.” Still Tbilisi accounts for the largest
number of sales for the company that relies on independent sales
consultants, similar to those of Mary Kay in the United States.

In Georgia and Armenia, the company has over 12,000 consultants and
45 staff workers. Oriflame Georgia officially opened its Tbilisi
service center in November 2000.

Oriflame Cosmetics was established in 1967 in Sweden by two brothers
Jonas and Robert af Jochnick. Today Oriflame is present in 55
countries and is one of the market leaders in 30 countries. A sales
force of more than 1.5 million independent consultants sell the
companies products.

On Thursday, Oriflame held a press conference to promote its newest
face cream and talk about its success in Georgia. The company
declined to release sales figures for Georgia but noted that the
numbers have increased compared to 2003. According to the Oriflame
Regional Sales Manager, Levan Bokuchava, the reasons for the
company’s success worldwide is a growing market and their “high
quality products at competitive prices.”

Company sales in CIS countries and Baltics in the third quarter of
2004 equaled Euro 64.7million.

According to Kiasashvili, any interested person can become a sales
consultant and the company provides them with training so that they
can not only sell cosmetics, but also “offer a customer an advice.”