A successful Transformation Plan
Between 2020 and 2022, the Pierre Fabre Laboratories implemented a Transformation Plan of unprecedented scope, organized around five pillars. It had precise and ambitious objectives and involved the entire company, all of its business lines, its organization and its culture.
The plan was designed in line with the Group’s values to restore profitability, ensure the company’s longevity and better meet the expectations of customers and partners, in particular patients, consumers and health care professionals.
It was carried out under exceptional and unpredictable circumstances: health crisis and cyberattack, international tensions and even raw material supply difficulties. These events complicated its rollout and highlighted its necessity.
It owes its success to our employees’ combined efforts, individual agility and collective adaptation.
Assert a medical & naturalness positioning that is both authentic and differentiating
The Transformation Plan is rooted in the assertion of a unique positioning based on the alliance of medical and naturalness for the benefit of people.
In 2020, a Corporate Medical & Patient / Consumer Relation Division was created to improve patient and consumer management by placing them at the center of the care pathway. Then there is Green Mission Pierre Fabre, which is dedicated to CSR and naturalness and is the source of inspiration for our Green Impact Index, the first social and environmental scoring tool for cosmetics and family health products.
In the field of Dermo-Cosmetics, the Group’s dual medical and naturalness expertise has shaped a new approach to health care, called “Conscious Care”, which has brought the Group’s brands together around the development of products that are not only safer, but also more effective and respectful of the planet. One of the launches that best typifies this approach is that of the A-Derma Biology range, certified Cosmos Organic by Ecocert.
Refocus our portfolio strategy
The Transformation Plan has allowed us to optimize our brand portfolio, to better balance the Group’s two activities.
The Medical Care activity has been given a new lease of life, with a refocus on oncology and dermatology. In these therapeutic areas, the Group has strengthened its position in niche indications particularly suited to a medium-sized laboratory. As a result, major launches have been made possible in oncology, for treating specific forms and developments of melanoma, colorectal cancer and breast cancer. Several partnerships with innovative biotechs have also been signed, for example with the EspeRare Foundation for the development of the first treatment for XLHED, a rare genetic disease with serious dermatological impacts.
In dermo-cosmetics, we have streamlined our portfolio to retain only brands that are in line with the Group’s medical and naturalness positioning. In addition, an acceleration plan has been put in place to support the development of Eau Thermale Avène.
The Transformation Plan has also provided an opportunity to refocus our industrial and service facilities, to promote localized production in France and concentrate on the Group’s products.
Improve our efficiency to fund the transformation
Fundamental work has been carried out to increase the Group’s ability to generate profitable growth, with the aim of achieving greater efficiency.
We have strengthened synergies between the Medical Care and Dermo-Cosmetics & Personal Care activities, for example with the merging of several sales networks in our subsidiaries. The same applies to subsidiaries, where the synergies achieved by placing the two activities under the same general management have led to productivity gains and better profitability.
We have also optimized industrial processes, for example by reducing the number of tube formats from 110 to 10 references. Finally, some activities have been internalized, such as the production of new oncology acti- ve ingredients at the Gaillac site.
To take this a step further, the Group has also launched its Operations 4.0 project, to develop production methods using digital technologies, an example being the creation of a new workshop in Gaillac to produce biological active ingredients derived from the microflora in Avène thermal spring water.
Leverage digital technologies to improve consumer/ patient centricity
Digital technology offers an opportunity to better understand the expectations of patients, consumers and health care professionals and to customize relations. Our adoption of precision marketing has allowed the Group’s brands to foster higher quality digital interactions with consumers.
A unified clinical data platform, the Clinical Data Tower, has been created to gather all the data relating to clinical studies in one place. All our activities and functions are gradually benefiting from a more comprehensive and detailed view to better engage their targets.
Moreover, our capacities for data collection, analysis and exploitation have been strengthened with the creation of a Data Center of Excellence and the establishment in 2022 of a central repository for sharing and cross-referencing data, called the DataMarketPlace.
Increased investment in all digital channels has also contributed to the development of the Group’s e-commerce activity, and 21.2% of dermo-cosmetics sales are now generated online compared with 10% in 2019.
Transform our organization and ways of working
Deemed too vertical in nature, the company has completely changed its organizational structure. Four Business Units and eight pooled Business Partners are now working to develop the agility required to work better together.
The Executive Committee has been streamlined, to become more agile and give us a more cross-functional vision of our strategic decisions.
Numerous initiatives have been launched to promote more collaborative ways of working, and to better involve employees in the Group’s strategy. Since 2020, employee engagement has been measured each year through an internal survey.The objectives and annual priorities of each Business Unit and department are shared in a transparent manner to promote team alignment.Twice a month, the CEO speaks to employees in a video about the highlights of the past fortnight.Since April 2021, an internal communication platform has been used to inform employees in real time about the life of the Group and to share new content every day.