Avon closes down in New Zealand after 40 years

February 16, 2018

It will close operations by the end of the year.

Failing to move with the times, beauty company Avon announced on Thursday that it'll be closing operations by the end of the year.

First Retail Group, Chris Wilkinson says, "Online came along. They didn't adopt online. Their distributions systems were quite archaic and the other challenge is they didn't have any customer succession plans."

Avon was established in 1886, selling in Australia in 1963 and New Zealand in 1978. It has thousands of sales people throughout Australasia.

Wilkinson says Avon was particularly popular in regional New Zealand when there was no internet.

"We've seen provincial customers, customers, and consumers in smaller towns, be the quickest to adopt e-commerce."

Avon lady of 31 years Sue Wiles says, "I definitely think it's a sign of the times. We weren't expecting it really. It did come out of the blue..yea I think it's going to affect a lot of markets."

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