Silvr met with the president and co-founder of Well Care, Florent Porcheron.
This engineer has a Master's degree from ESSEC Business School. After seven years in a strategy consulting firm, he was looking to start on the path to entrepreneurship. And so the story of Well Care began in 2017 with two of his friends, who were fellow engineers.
The 100% French physiological stool brand has big European ambitions. Originally, the brand started out with a D2C model on its online store; geographical borders opened up for it. However, the logistical limit for the brand of toilet accessories lies in inventory management. The production line must be revitalized, and stock and shipments must be managed. Especially since Well Care is evolving by starting to sell on Amazon’s marketplace. This was made possible with the help of Silvr, which financed the company's stock, thus easing the company's cash flow, and consequently allowing greater production in order to cover the growing demand in Europe.
Florent Porcheron was looking for growth for Well Care without necessarily going through paid acquisition, especially since he considered it expensive and complex, especially on Facebook Ads. This is nonetheless a growth avenue that will be explored later in the Well Care adventure. He worked mainly alone when it came to developing his online business. However, the blocking point for the growth of Well Care was the huge strain on the stocks. They are expensive, and you have to know how to sell them at the right pace. The bankers Florent spoke to found it difficult to understand his business model (DNVB). So, he started looking fora solution to finance his inventory management-related cash flow hole .
Then he discovered Silvr and the Revenue-Based Financing model. He noticed the speed and simplicity with which Silvr connected to his data, especially the most recent data (and therefore in line with his growth). Silvr knows the orders of magnitude for growth, and knew how to finance this evolution.
At the time of his first stock financing with Silvr, he nevertheless had little history, but the projections provided by the data made it all possible, something “which conventional players would not have allowed at all. Silvr believes in projects through the data they generate.” In addition, the brand's European development required a large volume of cash from the outset. Silvr was able to free up this cash by relieving Well Care of the heavy cost of inventory. In fact, the ROI on certain investments may not be realized for 6 months or a year. The cash flow generated by Silvr means that Well Care can consolidate its presence in Germany, a market that is now equally as important as France for the brand.
Before Silvr, Florent and his associates had the support of the BPI for the tooling, costing several tens of thousands of euros. Development was also possible through the help of bank branches. So they launched their first product. As decided at the beginning, they developed the business using a B2C model, which was the simplest approach. This decision was considered all the more judicious as their 100% DNVB model did not suffer too much when the pandemic hit.
Having won a medal at the Lépine contest – which rewards the most innovative inventions– Well Care's patented physiological stools also have real medical legitimacy.
They are organically recommended by health professionals such as:
They opted for D2C sales with a catalog of about ten products. As for the sales channels, the brand has diversified them, because the competition intensified and it was necessary to expand to stand firm. The traditional points of sale required a sales funnel that was too long, especially as there wasn’t the budget to manage it alone. To reach one million euros in annual sales in the short term [this milestone is quickly approaching with a doubling of revenue this year], Florent has only used a few freelancers. Now he creates economic activity by outsourcing the technical management and product development side of things.
Well Care then joined Amazon’s marketplace. Florent points out that this is the marketplace where the largest volume of sales is made. It's absolutely ideal because Well Care can take advantage of all the logistical benefits of the marketplace: warehouse in Germany, after-sales service, and therefore much greater visibility and operational coverage. The entire sales system is also managed from end to end, which favors the evolution of its business. From France, a delivery in Europe is at least €20 (including tax). The gamble therefore paid off – once again – with shipments managed from German logistics platforms.
"What interested me about entrepreneurship was clear from the start; we wanted to develop a physical B2C product, not an app or a SaaS or a service company." Then the desire to make it a 100% made-in-France product emerged from their first consultations. Why? The need to create products related to their values: sustainability and social impact. Because even if this means higher costs, Well Care's mantra is indeed to do "better". This "better" approach is part of the brand's strong CSR actions. This is evidenced by the fact that part of their made-in-France production is carried out in an ESAT(Établissements ou Services d'Aides par le Travail) in Haute-Savoie. They help to integrate disabled people into the workplace. The other production sites are in the North of France, in Vendée and in Sarthe. In the catalog you’ll find products made of recycled or recyclable materials or wood from PEFC(Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified forests, because the goal is to make a stand against the low-quality products made of virgin plastic all over the world.
From an American entrepreneurial idea – where the product is readily available and has already achieved a certain generalization – they opted for the physiological stool, despite the many challenges that awaited them:
With Silvr and the financing of their stocks, Well Care was able to maintain local production while retaining the possibility of exporting.
Would you also like to develop your online business abroad and from France? Call on Silvr and ask for financing now!
Published on
March 28, 2023
By
Antoine
.png)
