Three years ago, when the financial crisis swept across the world, Christian Courtin-Clarins made two important decisions for his family business - one, to delist it from the Paris stock exchange where it had been traded for 24 years; two, to focus on its development in Asia instead of America.
'When I came to the stock market it was because we were small compared with the others, and we needed the money to buy a new factory, to invest in research and to strengthen the company,' said Courtin-Clarins, son of the business founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins.
'We moved Clarins from the stock market in 2008 because we wanted to maintain the quality. You don't have the pressure of the shareholders who want to make more profit now and I can have my time to do everything long-term. We only have six shareholders - my brother and myself, two daughters of mine and two daughters of my brother. We are the only ones who take the dividends, so we look at what the company needs, and we don't need that many dividends as when we were in the stock market.'
It was also in 2008 that the Courtin-Clarins decided to focus on Asia, particularly China.
While they had already captured the major market share of the European skin care industry - 25 per cent of the skin care market in France, 30 per cent in the UK, Courtin-Clarins said the group had yet to gain a foothold in the diverse Asian market, where competitors like Estee Lauder, Clinique and Lancome had already gained substantial market share.
'We beat them in Europe, they are stronger than us in Asia, but I plan to be number one in China and Asia in 10 years,' Courtin-Clarins smiled.