Hello Vincent, could you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Vincent Penel, 38 years old and 3 children, I hold the position of Sales Director at Pimpant with the main mission of developing the BtoB activity and more particularly in GSS with a team of 4 salespeople! After 13 years on the road as a salesperson for various large groups (mostly in construction), my ecological conscience gradually awakened with the arrival of my 3 daughters and led me to the creation of the company Cap Bambou (ZD bamboo accessories) in 2019 with my partner Eulalie GIROD, now sales director at Cosmetika (Zao/Lamazuna/Cap Bambou).

In 2023, during Pimpant's first fundraising round, I invested in this project, which I believed in from the start. I always thought that the future of DPH shelves lay in refillable products. This new use addresses the problem of single-use plastic and makes life easier for the consumer: Pimpant is products with less packaging, more practical to put in the basket than a product with water, but with exactly the same effectiveness and the same pleasure.

I contacted Baptiste, the CEO, to suggest we discuss the BtoB side and the organic network that I knew through Cap Bambou. We quickly clicked and he asked me to join the adventure in sales management. The opportunity was great and the project very ambitious, ideal for my senior prospector-developer profile. So I left Cap Bambou 100% to my partner Eulalie (later sold to Cosmétika in November 2024) and joined the Pimpant project in September 2023.

In 1 year, we went from 100 to 900 resellers and we multiplied our BtoB turnover by 3. The adventure is intense; convincing consumers to switch to dilutable powder is a real challenge that we are currently taking on. The market is ready for this new use, and it's very exciting: it's a mission that drives me every day!

Since your last participation in the show, how has Pimpant evolved?

Since our last participation in September 2024 in Lyon, the 3rd edition for Pimpant, the company has grown a lot in a short period of time.
We became industrial with the inauguration in September of our diluting powder factory in Dives-sur-Mer in Normandy.
The project is taking on another dimension, organic brands are listening and giving us their trust, requests for white label are pouring in, we feel that the refillable and the powder to dilute are being taken seriously. The immense daily work of the R&D, marketing and logistics teams is bearing fruit and has allowed us to close the year 2024 with a growth of 122% vs 2023.

 

What role did the Natexpo trade fair play in the development of your business?

Natexpo is a trade fair that I know well, having participated in it four times with Cap Bambou and then twice with Pimpant. For me, it's a must-see; it's a showcase for organic products and their evolution. We all know that organic needs to reinvent itself!

Brands and retailers have understood this and Natexpo is the best way to present innovations and to convince people about the changes to make. On the Pimpant side, being present every year always opens more doors for us, allowing us to meet our clients and prospects over 2 or 3 days. Thanks to Natexpo, we can highlight our expertise in dilutable powder, we can convince and bring the organic stakeholders into the project. Natexpo is a business accelerator for us.

Is there a particular moment that marked the history of Dapper ?

There are many. Our appearance on "Who Wants to Be My Partner" on M6 was a crazy accelerator, as this medium is so powerful for visibility, notoriety, and business, but if I had to choose one, it would clearly be the opening of the factory in September. Internalizing production, becoming industrial, is a key step in becoming a leader in a new use. This allows us to be ever more agile and less dependent. The factory opens many doors for us, gives credibility to the project in the eyes of partners, and makes it more concrete. 

 

What are your goals and plans for the future of the company?

They are like Pimpant: numerous and ambitious. In the short term, in 2025, we will increase our production skills and respond to the first requests for white label products. We will keep up the pace with product launches to quickly reach 70 references in the catalog. Great innovations in powder will be released, particularly in the laundry detergent range where the market is huge and where the current offer does not always meet the increasingly specific demand of consumers. In the long term, Pimpant must become the world leader in dilutable powder for hygiene and maintenance in the home.

Your daily organic reflex? 

My daily life is organic. At home, we shop at Biocoop or DaybyDay in Bourg-en-Bresse or even at La Fourche online. We buy organic, bulk, and local products as much as possible; it's become a habit for years!
And we're hunting down disposable packaging; over-packaging is everywhere. A few years ago, when there were five of us at home, I was shocked to see how quickly the yellow bin filled up. I don't want that anymore, and Pimpant is the answer to this problem. For me, organic is common sense; it's the future of our children and our agriculture. Organic must fight to grow and bring the general public on board, and believe me, I'll always be there!

 

We wish you the same success as them! Join the next edition from November 30 to December 2, 2025 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles 👇
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