WoodyL'Occitane
L'Occitane en Provence was born in 1976 when Olivier Baussan, twenty-three years old, bought an old still for the weight of its copper to distill rosemary and lavender and sell them at the markets of Haute-Provence. The house, based in Manosque, sells mainly skincare, but its waters built around honey, verbena or immortelle also make it a perfume brand.
L'Occitane perfumes
A still bought for the weight of its copper
Olivier Baussan abandoned his literature studies and bought, in 1976, the still of a former farmer. He distilled rosemary and lavender, sold them at the markets, recovered the machines of a master soapmaker and brought in a chemist to develop his first products.
The first store opened in Volx, in Haute-Provence, in the early 1980s. Manosque became the headquarters and production site, and remains so: most of the range is still made there fifty years later.
From Manosque to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The Austrian Reinold Geiger joined the company's capital in the early 1990s and took over its management. The first stores outside France opened between 1995 and 1997 in Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo, and the brand now counts close to three thousand points of sale in ninety countries.
The Hong Kong stock exchange listing, in 2010, raised more than seven hundred million dollars. Geiger bought back, in April 2024, with the backing of Blackstone, the twenty-eight percent he did not hold, and delisted the group the same year.
A skincare brand that makes perfumes
The L'Occitane group also owns Melvita, Erborian and Elemis, and the original brand remains its heritage house. It celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in April 2026, with a redesigned factory tour in Manosque and a book by the founder about its early years.
The house's perfumes extend its skincare materials rather than break away from them: honey, verbena, immortelle, almond, lavender. They are sold through its own network of stores, not in selective perfumery, which sets them apart from the perfume market.