Avon announces partnership to deliver global training platform for Independent Sales Representatives

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Feb 20, 2019, 07:30 ET

New online learning platform will revolutionise how Avon helps Representatives learn new skills and grow their businesses

LONDON, Feb. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP), a globally recognised leader in direct selling of beauty products has announced a partnership with Fuse Universal (Fuse) - a leading provider of next-generation learning technology - to create a global training platform. The initiative supports a central pillar of Avon's transformation plan to digitise its business and accelerate the selling and earning power of Avon's millions of Representatives worldwide.

The partnership is one element of Avon's business strategy to 'Open Up' the company and unleash the potential of the brand and business model. The new training platform will revolutionise the way Representatives experience training as Avon transforms into a digital-first, social selling, fast-beauty brand.

The platform will deliver content to fuel Representative earning potential – and thereby retention. Training delivered through the platform will include a wide range of topics, from beauty tutorials and skincare science to marketing and sales skills. Avon's goal is to reach millions of women with a mix of blended training to help them build their Avon businesses.

Miguel Fernandez, President Global Sales, said: "Our Avon beauty entrepreneurs are the heart of our business and it's crucial that we provide them with digital and mobile-first tools to open up their potential learning and earning power. This is a core element of Avon's transformation plan, and as we have recently reported, we're seeing early signs of the positive impact new digital tools and increased training can have on our Representatives' sales. In today's world of ready access to technology, our new relationship with Fuse will enable us to deliver training tools to our global network of Representatives in a form that enables them to learn on their own terms as they grow and thrive with Avon. We are opening up Avon to better serve our customers and support our Representatives. When she succeeds, we succeed."

Following an extensive procurement process, Avon selected Fuse for its ability to create a globally scalable learning platform. Fuse's learning platform allows companies to create, curate and share content to facilitate seamless learning, knowledge sharing and communication. The platform is built with learners in mind and achieves employee engagement rates up to 100x higher than other industry learning providers.

Founder and CEO at Fuse Universal, Steve Dineen, added, "Avon's business is remarkable and touches millions of customers every day. Avon beauty entrepreneurs need to be armed with the latest knowledge on products and services, and this partnership will help power Avon's transformation, with new ways of working that can be executed with speed and agility. We're also excited at the prospect of building a community environment that empowers Representatives around the world to share their best practices on sales skills, customer experience and product knowledge in order to stay ahead of the competition."

The platform has already been successfully piloted in South Africa and will now roll out to Avon's key markets this year, starting with the UK, South Africa and Avon's largest markets in Latin America.

About Avon Products Inc.

For 130 years Avon has stood for women: providing innovative, quality beauty products which are primarily sold to women, through women. Millions of independent sales Representatives across the world sell iconic Avon brands such as Avon Color and ANEW through their social networks, building their own beauty businesses on a full- or part-time basis. Avon supports women's empowerment, entrepreneurship and well-being and has donated over $1billion to women's causes through Avon and the Avon Foundation. Learn more about Avon and its products at www.avonworldwide.com. #Stand4Her

About Fuse Universal

Fuse Universal is a learning technology company which helps large and fast-growing companies build a culture of continuous learning and drive measurable improvements in business performance. Used by over 120 customers worldwide, including Spotify, Adidas, Scandic, Vodafone, and Ogilvy, The Fuse platform combines machine learning and artificial intelligence with beautifully-designed tools to enable content curation, creation, and crowdsourcing. With its mobile-first design and community features, Fuse Universal enables companies to unlock knowledge and insights from their top-performing employees in order to teach and engage their teams worldwide, while also supporting traditional learning content and courses.

Fuse Universal is proud of its global education charity, FuseSchool, which supports 200,000 students online. Funded by Fuse Universal's successful commercial business, FuseSchool is transforming the secondary school education curriculum into high-quality bitesize content, free for all to access.

Learn more at www.fuseuniversal.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This material contains "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to Representative training initiatives, engagement rates and the growth of Avon's business. Because forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties, actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the possibility of business disruption, competitive uncertainties, and general economic and business conditions in Avon's markets as well as the other risks detailed in Avon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Avon undertakes no obligation to update any statements in this material after it is posted to the Investor Relations section of our website.

SOURCE Avon Products, Inc.