As pro-Palestinian groups continue to promote a boycott of the Dead Sea products of AHAVA Dead Sea Laboratories, the Jewish Chronicle of 25 April 2010 has in response urged the company’s customers to buy more of its products.
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Campaigning group CODEPINK: Women for Peace, through their website Stolen Beauty has said that AHAVA’s Dead Sea products, “Come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the occupied territory of the Palestinian West Bank and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. Don’t let the Made in Israel sticker fool you…”
CODEPINK advocates positive action to persuade people not to buy AHAVA’s Dead Sea cosmetics; currently the organisation is pushing the publishers of Lonely Planet to take out AHAVA’s West Bank entry from their guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Other targets include retailers Nordstrom and Ricky’s a New York family business, both have been asked to remove AHAVA’s beauty products from their shelves.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, demonstrations outside the stores are commonplace, in London for example on 14 March the store was forced to close because of activists. Other protests have been held recently in Arlington, Washington, Montreal, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles.
Dead Sea Mud and Dead Sea Salt
However from a purely business perspective the future of AHAVA Dead Sea Laboratories looks positive. The company’s location on the Dead Sea, which forms the border between Israel and Jordan, allows them unique access to the minerals extracted from Dead Sea mud and Dead Sea salt.
Announcements from Calcalist, a leading Israeli business news source, say AHAVA will open a flagship store in New York in 2010 adding to the company’s other overseas outlets in London, Berlin, Budapest, Manila and Singapore
The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute (IEICI) also highlight a possible joint venture between AHAVA and Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva to develop and market a new dermocosmetics line. Should such a venture be implemented and succeed, the resulting exposure would propel AHAVA to a new level in what is a highly competitive business.
According to the IEICI, 60% of AHAVA’s 2009 turnover was derived from overseas sales with its main markets in the United States, Russia and Germany. Total Israeli cosmetics industry exports are around $165 annually. AHAVA’s $50 million annual turnover comes from selling its Dead Sea products in 25 countries worldwide
AHAVA Growth
CEO Yaakov Ellis, while accepting that AHAVA will only post single digit growth figures this year, forecasts the company’s Dead Sea cosmetic sales will triple in the next three years. In response to the movement to boycott his products he says that he doesn’t get excited about demonstrations against his stores around the world.
Sources:
Hoffman, J, AHAVA Needs Your Love Jewish Chronicle, website accessed 27/4/10
CODEPINK: Stolen Beauty, website accessed 27/4/10
www.ahava.co.il, website accessed 27/4/10
The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, website accessed 27/4/10
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