WAHM Forums

Does anyone know WHERE in Switzerland AIRD is located? I have a potentialbusiness builder whose mother is from Switzerland so she's very interested in knowing more. I've tried looking on the website but can't find it....


Ines

Hi Ines!


I had someone ask me once about getting a job at AIRD in Switzerland, so I looked up some info about it for them - Iwas trying to find a phone number or email address or something for AIRD, butI didn'thave much luck! So I called 1-800-@RBONNE (1-800-@RBONNE), and they told me to email customer service. So I did that, and they still haven't replied yet (this was about 8 months ago!!). I do know that AIRD is in Sion, Switzerland ("Sitten" in German), and so I checked the city of Sion's webpage, but I couldn't find it mentioned there, either. Ifinally looked up Pierre Bottiglieri, since heis the head of AIRD and also the president of the Swiss Cosmetic Chemist Society - and I found his email address on the SCCS website - he's probably super-duper busy, but if someone really needed info, who knows, maybe he could help!! :) It's pbottiglieri@swissscc.ch.


Hope that helps!


Angela

I'm pretty sure AIRD does not have an address per se. It's made up of a
group of people who all do work at an independent lab.

This is my understanding also Allison.

I "heard" that all the RVP (?) that they are all going to Switzerland this year or next to visit ARID.


So it might be a place.

My NVP Jeanne Sterner has visited the lab. Her picture was on the website last year standing in front of it. That is the only solid proof I have of its existence. I am not saying it does not exist, but like Allison said, it is more like a rented out space in a lab where our chemist work. This has been a heated discussion on other boards proving its existence, so I wanted to know what exactly it was too. I even got ahold of the Sion register (Sion is where AIRD is) and they emailed me back and told me they never heard of arbonne. I found that interesting. I also heard that Arbonne is in the process of purchasing its own building there for research and development.


So, with all of my research ( I emailed arbonne too and never heard back), I have come to the conclusion that there is a group of chemist using some lab space in Switzerland, but no fancy building with Arbonne written in big, beautiful letters on the outside with an address. I think it is more like using a lab at a college campus for other purposes. You would not put your business name on the campus, or campus lab room, nor would your business come up when you looked up the campus address.


Some people think Arbonne is lying; After 26 years in business, they have way too much to lose. I have said it before, but I think it is just part of marketing calling it the Arbonne Institute of Research and Development; ya' know, paint a prettier and more professional picture.

I believe that too.. but really how many companies can own their own research center when they start. I have heard they are working on one.. and after 26 yrs (and the most growth in the last couple) it seems like now would be a good time. They probably couldn't really do it before.


Kim

I sort of found a picture of it!





http://www.arbonne.com/images/people/lindsey_s/8.jpg

Oh my gosh! I never expected to open up this can of worms when I started the posting! LOL

If you do a search you can find this topic discussed before. Glad to see this one isn't getting ugly.


AIRD is real it's just not a mortar building. It's a group of people. It is my understanding that the company is planning on buying space to house it. Personally I don't understand all the hub-ub. So what if the lab is in rented out space somewhere? So are most companies. My Environmental company rents space in a building owned by a management company but that doesn't make my environmentalcompany any less real. It's also my understanding that it's pretty normal for the business to not own the lab that is used but instead to rent the space. At least until they can afford to construct their own. Can you imagine how much $$$ it probably costs to build a lab? Smaller companies can't do that in the beginning.

I don't think it's that big of a deal either, but I do think there are some reps who mis-represent the affiliation. Just to clarify, A***** uses a lab in Switzerland to do some R & D, and almost every other cosmetic company uses that same company. There is no lab solely for the purpose of R&D for A******. The company is called Laboratoires Biologiques Arval S.A.
(www.arval.ch). They have done some work for A*****, and Mr. Bottiglieri works there, but is not the president.I think that A***** has been attempting to get a license in Switzerland, but I don't know if that has gone through yet. The products are manufactured in the U.S, and the company headquarters is in California.
The misleading statements that I have heard are:
1. A******* used to be a swiss co. and moved to the U.S in 1980- they were never a swiss co.
2. A****** owns the lab where R&D is done- as explained above, it is not owned or operated by the company.

That's all for now, hope that clarifies things for the newbies!I researched this because a friend of mine asked me to. She was looking into joining A*****, which she chose not to- She joined a candle co. instead, and wanted to know more info about it. She didn't like the fact that there was a lot of misinformation about the origins, some originating from the company headquarters itself.

how can you think that a bunch of speculation will "clarify things for the newbies"? smileys/smiley5.gif


AIRD is a group of chemists, not a building, and all formulations are proprietary, meaning the company owns the formulas, no one else has them.


as Jennifer explained, many companies rent out labs to do work, so no it's not the same "company" doing the R&D, it's the same building with a lab that AIRD rents to use.


there is a VP trip this month to Switzerland, so I'm sure we'll hear more news about this issue soon

Cassandra, there was absolutely no speculation on my part in my post. What I was clarifying are the two commonly heard misconceptions that I mentioned. I have heard those things repeated, mostly by new consultants, and they are all over the internet and they are wrong. I never mentioned AIRD in my post, I was mentioning where the process was done. As of July, when I did research for my friend, there was no registered business named AIRD in Switzerland, and no address/phone to contact. I figured out that it was a group of people rather than a physical address in July. However, there are many people in your company that think and say that it is a laboratory owned by A****** that exclusively does research for the company. That's what I was clarifying. I also know that there was talk that they were looking into opening up their own facility outside of Sion. I agree with what Jennifer said, and I mentioned that many of the cosmetic companies do the same thing at the same lab. I'm glad the company is working on clearing things up for everyone. I also emailed the company and got no response, just like everyone else. Some people like to solve mysteries, and that is how discussions got started.
Peace