La Compagnie de Provence

La Compagnie de Provence is a French personal-care brand founded in Marseille in 1990 and headquartered in Aix-en-Provence. It built its identity on the traditional cube of Marseille soap, which it reinterpreted in modern, design-led packaging, and has since broadened into face care, body care, home fragrance and aromatherapy. The company was founded by two friends from the city, Pascal Bourelly and Philippe Boigeol, who set out to preserve a local product they saw as part of the cultural heritage of Provence.

Since August 2024 the brand has been owned by Rampal Latour, a French maker of Savon de Marseille based in Salon-de-Provence, which acquired it from the Italian dermo-cosmetics group Istituto Ganassini [8]. The brand continues to operate and launch products under the new ownership.

According to the company's account of its history, the brand began "once upon a time, in 1990" with two design-minded friends from Marseille who wanted to keep the traditional soap cube and "its unrivalled place in the cultural heritage of Provence" alive for a wider audience [2]. The trade profile published by Bible-Marques records the same year and names the founders as Pascal Bourelly and Philippe Boigeol, who set out to revive what it calls the famous Marseille soap cube [9].

From the start the company paired the natural, multi-purpose soap with skincare enriched with plant oils, using short formulas drawn from regional ingredients. Olive oil, sweet almond oil and Provençal botanicals became recurring components of the range.

The brand's defining early move came in 1999, when it introduced what it describes as the first liquid version of Savon de Marseille: a pump dispenser holding soap made the traditional way in a cauldron from vegetable oils, presented in a glass syrup bottle that became a signature of the line [2].

In 2013 the company was acquired by Istituto Ganassini, an Italian dermo-cosmetics group based in Milan, a step the brand frames as gaining access to dermatology research and development [8]. Facial skincare followed: a first moisturising face cream in 2018, the Shea Butter Absolute Dry Oil in 2019, the Sorbet face hydration cream with Mediterranean velvet seaweed in 2021, the Apothicare aromatherapy collection in 2022, and a Sensitive Skin Collection in 2023. The company marked its thirtieth anniversary in 2020 with three limited editions illustrated by the artist Marie Doazan and a new boutique concept.

In August 2024 Istituto Ganassini sold the brand to Rampal Latour, a French savonnerie based in Salon-de-Provence, for an undisclosed sum; trade press dates the transaction to 14 August 2024 [8][13]. According to the reporting, Ganassini said it wished to refocus its portfolio on its core business of manufacturing cosmetics sold business-to-business, while Rampal Latour set out to build distribution synergies and to bring part of the brand's manufacturing in-house at its own factory.

Sources differ on the current parent. The reporting above, echoed by FashionNetwork France, names Rampal Latour as owner from August 2024. The brand's own corporate listing on the Ganassini group site still presents Compagnie de Provence as a Ganassini brand, reflecting the 2013 acquisition rather than the later sale [10]. This article follows the later published trade reports.

La Compagnie de Provence positions itself as a contemporary lifestyle interpretation of Provence, pairing the region's heritage of lavender and olive groves with modern design. The company states its mission as "combine beauty and goodness to take care of yourself naturally, with style," and uses the tagline "Designed in Provence." It frames its approach around what it calls beautiful functionality: design paired with practical utility, and natural formulas it presents as balancing effectiveness with sensory pleasure.

The range centres on Marseille soaps in liquid and solid form, alongside face care, hand care, body care, home products such as diffusers and candles, and natural toothpastes. The 1999 liquid Marseille soap remains the brand's best-known product; among later launches, the Shea Butter Absolute Dry Oil is described by the company as a best-selling multi-purpose treatment for face, body and hair.

Formulas draw on Provençal plant oils together with ingredients the brand calls "super ingredients," including Mediterranean velvet algae, Monteux fig extract, shea butter and Haute-Provence honey. The company says the majority of its products contain at least 95 percent ingredients of natural origin [4], and that olive oil is sourced largely from the Château Virant estate in Lançon-Provence. Fragrances are developed by perfumers in Grasse. Under Ganassini ownership the brand stated that its formulas were developed and tested with the group's research laboratories under dermatological control.

The company sets out a four-part commitment covering its carbon footprint, natural-origin formulas, charitable partnerships and employee well-being. It points to its long-standing use of glass packaging for liquid soaps, and offers one- and three-litre refills for its signature 500 ml Marseille liquid soap to reduce single-use packaging. Its commitments page does not list third-party certifications such as B Corp, Ecocert or COSMOS.

The liquid Marseille soap received an Allure Best of Beauty award in 2020 in the hand-wash category, according to a retailer listing of the award [12]. By the company's own reporting, the brand was distributed in roughly 40 to 43 countries, with export accounting for about two-thirds of turnover, and was sold in France through retailers including Sephora, Marionnaud, Monoprix and pharmacies [8].

The brand is classified as acquired: since 14 August 2024 it has been owned by Rampal Latour, having previously belonged to Istituto Ganassini [8]. It continues to operate, with its most recent product collection dating to 2023 and its company blog last updated in 2021, while product launches have continued.