Doing business in Mauritius
she liked the idea of starting her own business.
In the meantime, she set up Maurice Accueil, an association designed to welcome francophone expatriates and
enable them to get to know the island and meet Mauritians - in short to create a social network to help new arrivals feel at home.
A chance meeting led to the rest of the story. A friend from
Guinea told Sylvie about a village in her country where
the women make an extraordinary ointment whose active
ingredient is Carapa procera, used to treat skin problems
and psoriasis in particular. Sylvie, who had suffered from
the condition since the age of 15, tried it out and found
that it worked!
She now had her inspiration! She would help sufferers
benefit from the anti-inflammatory, regenerating and
healing properties of Carapa procera, a tropical plant
known for its pharmaceutical properites but never previously used in cosmetology.
Thus, in 2005, the incredible story of the Laboratoires des
Mascareignes began, based on fair-trade principles, Mauritian resourcefulness and European expertise.
Sylvie travelled to Guinea, met the women of the village
in the midst of nowhere 1,300 kilometres distant from
Conakry, provided them with presses to extract the oil
from the plants and founded an association. “We were
all sitting under a tree and the village Imam suggested
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Luxury Mauritius
a name for the association which meant ‘Let us love one
another’. It was an unforgettable moment.” The deal was
straightforward―the women would extract the oil, Sylvie
would buy it from them, process it and sell it on her internet site. Laboratoires des Mascareignes was born!
As the years went by, she developed a more professional approach. Philippe worked with her for two years before setting up a business in partnership with the Mauritian group,
Currimjee. ScreenAge provides technical solutions for internal television and internet networks in hotels and hospitals.
Today, Sylvie has an ISO 22716-certified laboratory in the
Freeport, producing 10,000 pots twice yearly. She has even
invented a special machine to pack the ointment, which is
rather hard, into the pots. “That’s the beauty of Mauritius
―its culture of resourcefulness, creative and adaptable.
I would never have been able to set up this business in
France.” Similarly, the sponges provided with the kits are
made by Mauritian women in Grand Bay, using loofah
cultivated by the only producer on the island.
Sylvie has extended her range to include shampoos, moisturising creams and capsules that she produces in collaboration with two French laboratories. All have
Carapa procera as their basic ingredient. The greatest
reward came on 15 November last year, when her products
became available in France, distributed by the leading
independent pharmacy chain.