Logona: A Successful International Business

The year when Logona was founded (1978) and today are worlds apart. The company can look back on almost 30 years of development, and during this time natural cosmetics and the Logocos group of companies have come of age. However, the attitude is one of modesty in the Salzhemmendorf district of Oldendorf where the whole of this medium-size business is found under one roof covering a generous 6000 m² in a former kitchen furniture factory - the store for raw materials, product development and the laboratory, the filling plant and in-house graphic design and administration.

Picture: Logona founder Hans Hansel

It is from here that Logona cosmetics are sent to 30 countries all over the world. It is not only in Germany that natural cosmetics are buoyant; there is a boom in distant lands as well. For example, in Korea Logona’s babycare is in third place in the natural cosmetics market, and in Japan Logona’s decorative cosmetics are much in demand. In Australia, the market is growing. “Nearly half of turnover is achieved abroad, and the trend is upwards,” explains Hans Hansel, who founded the firm and is the principal managing director. Logona works with exclusive sales partners abroad. In Japan, for example, they operate sales by recommendation, the system made famous by Avon.

But why go so far away? Natural cosmetics are a great success in countries nearby in Europe as well. Marketing Manager Bettina Bockhorst says France is the most prominent, with Logona recording a growth rate of more than 50 % there last year. And the products are doing well in Italy, Spain, Austria, Holland and Scandinavia too. The market is opening up in Poland and Russia, and product descriptions are already supplied in seven languages (picture).

The brands Logona and Sante are very well established in Germany and have grown in parallel with the wholefoods industry. The company is very happy with growth of over 20 % in the financial year 2005. 60 % of this growth is accounted for by the brand Logona that is reserved exclusively for the specialist trade, and 40 % is attributable to Sante. Mrs Bockhorst finds that Fitne, the health care brand in development since 2003, with its non-prescription remedies, food supplements and medical products, has made a brilliant start with a growth in turnover of 160 %. Nevertheless, the company stresses the point that it is keen to see organic growth and considers optimising the internal functioning of the firm to be as important as innovations and financial gains, since it sets great store by stable development. It knows the market is volatile and is fully aware that competition is increasing all the time.

This is precisely the reason why the company is in such a good position with its three brands. With around 200 articles, the premium brand Logona embraces a wide variety: a programme of care for the face and body, the active-ingredient cosmetics ‘Age-Protection’, the decorative line, the men’s range ‘Mann’, babycare and children’s products as well as oral hygiene. However, people associate the name Logona with hair care (Bild) above all else. “This is at the heart of our business, and we are market leaders,” says Bettina Bockhorst emphatically. The range consists of eleven powder colours, the three “Color Cremes” that were selected as the product of the year at Biofach 2005, ten special shampoos, rinses, treatments and styling products. The innovative “Colour Cremes” are, however, the result of ten years of development work that cannot be simply transferred to new products in this line. All Logona hair dyes, like the rest of Logona products, bear the BDIH stamp for regulated natural cosmetics.

With the introduction of the brand Sante (picture) in the mid 1990s, the company opened up new sales channels extending beyond the specialist wholefood trade. Frau Bockhorst defines the specialist trade: “We mean not only the classical wholefood outlets but also chemists, health food stores and cosmetics salons. And you can find Sante in selected drugstores and retail food stores with an interest in natural cosmetics or an affinity with wholefood products as well.” She goes on to explain that there is now also a distinction within the retail wholefood trade itself, with the organic discounter Erdkorn selling Sante but not the Logona brand. Nevertheless, Sante is available together with Logona on the shelves of 75 % of specialist wholefood stores.

The range, that now comprises around 200 products, is somewhat cheaper than Logona, but most items still have the BDIH stamp, and in eco-tests it regularly gets a ‘very good’.  With its product presentation and price, Sante appeals to the young target group ‘20 plus’, whilst the Logona range’s most important target group continues to be women over 30. However, a shift of emphasis to women over 40 can also be discerned. Since Biofach 2005, men’s cosmetics in both brands have developed particularly well, with ‘Homme’ (Sante) achieving double-figure growth and ‘Mann’ (Logona) the top end of single-figure growth. Both brands also attract customers with lower priced products - Sante’s ’Natural Basics’, that has been on the market since the autumn of 2004, is aimed at families in particular, as is the case with Logona Daily Care. The lower priced articles are intended to familiarise the customers with the brand.

Bettina Bockhorst (picture) thinks that the restructuring occurring in the health food trade is creating new opportunities for the natural cosmetics brands. In her view, health food stores, some of which already stock Logona products, are good places to sell them, especially as it is likely that the stores will want to stock more and more wholefood brands in response to increasing demand by consumers. However, she does not underestimate health food store owners’ brand loyalty to their traditional suppliers. She does not see any drastic changes coming in the near future.

Brand image and marketing are taken very seriously by Logona. Every product line is accompanied by leaflets, brochures and sample sachets. Product promotions, testers for shops and display materials draw attention to the products at the point of sale. A customer care team is on hand in Salzhemmendorf to deal with enquiries from customers. About 60 courses are held every year to provide further training for staff working in stores. The training sessions operate a modular system starting with basic information and progressing to more detailed knowledge of the major features in the various ranges.

(Picture: Logona cosmetics in a Basic-market)

Surrounded by fields at the edge of Oldendorf, the company’s premises (picture) are in an idyllic but rather restricted location. So they are thinking about expanding the storage capacity in 2007. The company has around 200 staff, of whom 150 are permanent employees, 50 are part-timers and ten are trainees. “One of our great strengths is a good working environment, and we can see the proof of that in our retention of staff“, says Mrs Bockhorst. The company certainly shows its appreciation of its employees: they can avail themselves of anti-stress training, a back-care service and subsidised admission to a swimming pool. All employees can eat in the firm’s canteen that serves wholefood meals every day. The founder of the company, Hans Hansel, and his team are also involved in various social projects outside the firm - recently Logona donated 4500 applications of children’s tooth paste for the organic sandwich box scheme in Hanover.