Irvine cosmetics company Arbonne International LLC has signed on to sublease office space being vacated by the parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. at Irvine’s Jamboree Center.
Arbonne, which sells a pricey Swiss line of makeup, skin lotions and other products, plans to lease 90,000 square feet at the office complex at Main Street and Jamboree Road. The company already has 150,000 square feet at 9400 Jeronimo in Irvine, which serves as its headquarters.
In June, Orange-based ACC Capital Holdings Corp., parent of Ameriquest, said it was putting as much as 600,000 square feet of Orange County office space on the market, including about 175,000 square feet at Jamboree Center.
Arbonne offers cosmetics made from natural ingredients that are sold by independent sales representatives at house parties and other gatherings. Think Mary Kay or Avon, but with Euro organic cachet.
New York private equity firm Harvest Partners Inc. owns Arbonne and runs the business with Chatsworth-based Levlad Inc., a maker of natural and organic products.
The two companies make up Harvest’s Natural Products Group with yearly sales of about $200 million.
The operation seems to be a cash cow for Harvest: This summer the firm paid investors a $62 million dividend,its third in a year from Natural Products Group,after refinancing the operation’s debt.
Natural Products Group has given about $200 million in dividends in the past year on Harvest Partners’ original $93 million investment.
Senior Arbonne and Levlad management have an undisclosed stake in Natural Products Group.
Arbonne is expanding elsewhere.
In July, the company opened a 208,000-square-foot warehouse in Greenwood, Ind., to the glee of city and economic development officials there.
The facility employs about 440 people in two shifts, according to Arbonne.
Indiana wooed Arbonne. The state, county and city put together an incentive package that includes a $112,000 grant to train employees, $1 million in tax credits for investment and a 10-year tax abatement on personal property, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
“In 2005, Arbonne experienced unprecedented growth with a 164% increase in sales,” Chief Executive Bob Henry told trade magazine Material Handling Management. “The state-of-the-art Greenwood center will reduce shipping time by days, playing a vital role in our future growth.”
Locally, Henry was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2006.
Harvest Partners hired Henry in 2004. Before, he was chief executive of Mannatech Inc., a nutritional supplements maker in Texas. His other stints include executive positions at Avon Products Inc. and Amway Corp.
Harvest Partners set out to expand Arbonne’s network of sales “consultants” in the U.S. and Canada.
The company has about 370,000 consultants who buy cosmetics wholesale from Arbonne and can earn bonuses depending on how much they sell.
Arbonne offers a Mercedes-Benz for top sellers. One consultant told the Orange County Register in 2004 she expected to make $65,000 to $100,000 selling the products that year.
Another busy consultant told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in June that the average high-ranking consultant, one who has others below her,makes about $30,000,per month.
Arbonne, on its Web site, cautions it takes a lot of work to make that kind of money.
“Generating meaningful compensation as an Arbonne Independent Consultant requires considerable time, effort and commitment,” the company said. “This is not a get-rich-quick program and there are no guarantees of financial success.”
The company started in Switzerland in 1975 and moved to the U.S. in 1980. It sells about 250 organic and botanical-based products such as Mandarin Cashmere Body Whip, Pampermint for feet, aromatherapies, anti-aging cremes and weight loss chews and shakes.
