User:Zentrom/Armand Petitjean (perfumer)

Armand Petitjean (born in 1884 in Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse in the Haute-Saône department, died in 1970) is the founder of the perfume and cosmetic company Lancôme, today owned by L'Oréal.

Biography
Born to a family of distillers, he began his career doing business in South America, founding an import-export business with his brothers while living primarily in Santiago. This enterprise lasted until about 1925. Drafted into the military during the First World War, the secretary general of the ministry of foreign affairs, Phillipe Berthelot, intervened to station him away from fighting in the trenches.

Collaborating with perfumer François Coty, Petitjean developed his knowledge of perfume. After Coty's death in 1934 Petitjean founded Lancôme on February 21st 1935, to immediate success. His unwillingness to invest in marketing would contribute to financial difficulties for the company by the end of the 1950s. He passed ownership of the company to his son, the writer Armand Marcel Petit-Jean, in 1961, who later sold it in 1964 to L'Oréal.

Distinctions
He received the Medal of the City of Paris in 1956.

Connected articles

 * Lancôme
 * Armand Petitjean
 * François Coty

Category:History of cosmetics Category:French cosmetics businesspeople