SABON: From a Small Tel Aviv Soap Shop to 180 Stores Worldwide

“SABON was born from a love of textures and fragrances, the enjoyment and pleasure of body care, and the act of creating and listening. It came from a wish to offer people relaxation and magical moments amid their busy lives.”
— Avi Piatok, founder of SABON​

Basic Information

• Founded: 1997
• Founders: Avi Piatok and Sigal Kotler-Levi
• Country of origin: Israel, Tel Aviv
• Official Japanese website: https://www.sabon.co.jp/
• Pronunciation: “Sah-bon.” The name means soap in Hebrew, a Semitic language.

The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

Two Childhood Friends and Their Different Paths

To tell SABON’s story, we must begin with its two founders and childhood friends, Avi Piatok and Sigal Kotler-Levi.

Piatok grew up as an ordinary Israeli boy. “As a child, I wanted to be a pilot or a footballer. I was that ordinary a boy,” he has said. As he grew older, however, that ambition shifted toward succeeding in business. He often traveled with his parents when young and enjoyed collecting hotel soap samples in different colors and scents. This could be seen as the starting point of his later business.​

After completing his military service in Israel, Piatok felt a strong desire to open a shop. At first, he considered starting a candle shop with another partner. Then he learned that natural soaps made in large blocks were becoming fashionable in Europe and America. Seeing the unusual concept of selling soap by weight, he felt he had found his idea.​

Kotler-Levi, meanwhile, had been Piatok’s friend since secondary school. She was still a student when he invited her to start a business. With a strong visual and design sensibility, she later remarked that she might otherwise have become an artist or painter. Her talent for design would become an important pillar of SABON.

The Day Two Childhood Friends Opened a Soap Shop: Tel Aviv, 1997

After completing their military service, the pair approached an Israeli soap manufacturer and asked for soap to be made in large blocks rather than molded into small bars. In 1997, they opened their small first shop on Shenkin Street in central Tel Aviv.

The soap is said to have drawn on a traditional Australian recipe, passed down for at least seventy years, which they had discovered while traveling.

The concept was highly unusual in Israel at the time. Customers pointed to their preferred block of soap and indicated the thickness they wanted. Staff cut the soap on the spot, weighed it to calculate the price, and wrapped it to hand over. This style of selling by weight, rather like buying vegetables at a market, captured people’s hearts.

The name SABON derives from the Hebrew word for soap, from the Semitic language family. The name itself conveys a straightforward commitment to simple, authentic craftsmanship.​

A Culture of Giving and a Fateful Valentine’s Day

Recalling the early days, Kotler-Levi said, “We opened around Valentine’s Day, and when we wrapped the soaps beautifully and sold them as gifts, they sold very well.” The idea of carefully wrapping natural soaps and presenting them as gifts became the foundation of the brand’s gift-giving culture.​

When the shop opened, specialist body-care retail scarcely existed as a category in Israel. People were returning from overseas trips with high-quality natural cosmetics from brands such as The Body Shop, and SABON arrived to fill that domestic gap.​

After the first shop’s success, Piatok began developing body-care and cosmetic products. Around two years after opening, skincare products beyond soap appeared on its shelves. The brand then steadily expanded across Israel, eventually reaching seventeen shops.

Going Global: New York’s West Village, 2003

Once SABON had seventeen shops in Israel, Piatok decided to expand internationally. One impetus was the growing number of Israeli customers sending SABON products as gifts to friends and family abroad. Recognizing this international demand, the founders partnered with Sharon Hasson in the United States and opened their first overseas shop in New York’s West Village in 2003.

“Many Israelis were sending our products abroad. When it became clear that there was international demand, we decided to expand overseas.”
— Avi Piatok​

After New York, SABON continued into Chicago, Los Angeles, and cities across Europe. It arrived in Rome in 2006 and opened its first Japanese shop in Omotesando, Tokyo, in 2008. France and Spain followed in 2010–2011. From 2019 onward, expansion in Asia accelerated through South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China.

Acquisition by Groupe Rocher and the Present Structure

In 2016, the major French cosmetics company Groupe Rocher acquired approximately seventy percent of SABON’s shares, although some reports put the figure at fifty-one percent. The acquisition was also reported to be worth ILS500 million, approximately US$129 million. At the time, SABON operated 175 shops in fourteen countries. Groupe Rocher explained that the acquisition would strengthen SABON’s global capabilities and accelerate its international expansion.

Piatok and Kotler-Levi remained in management after the acquisition. In 2018, Groupe Rocher bought the remaining shares, making SABON a wholly owned subsidiary. Both founders reportedly continued to contribute as consultants. Frenchman Joffrey Chartier became CEO in 2020.

In August 2025, Groupe Rocher sold the operating rights for SABON’s Israeli shops to Israel’s Golf Group under a franchise arrangement. The transaction was worth 6.5 million shekels, approximately €1.68 million, and transferred twenty-two shops and ninety-two employees. At the same time, the manufacturing plant and logistics center in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, are scheduled to close during 2026, with production consolidated at Groupe Rocher’s factories in Brittany, France.

The Brand’s Commitments

The Essence of Pleasure

SABON has consistently upheld the philosophy of “The Essence of Pleasure.” Amid everyday bustle, it seeks to transform bathing from simply keeping clean into a ritual that recharges body and mind. This is the brand’s reason for being.​

Its official message states:

“Nothing has greater power than fragrance to transform your mood, boost your energy, and give you confidence. Fragrance has a profound effect on how you feel and experience your surroundings.”
— SABON’s official website​

These words show that SABON is more than a body-care brand: it designs a complete sensory experience.

The Gifts of the Dead Sea and Mediterranean Botanicals

Since its founding, SABON has consistently emphasized naturally derived materials, particularly those from the Dead Sea. Materials such as its salt, mud, and algae, containing at least twenty minerals, lie at the heart of its products. They are generously combined with Mediterranean olive oil, shea butter, and essential oils from various plants and fruits.

Its signature Body Scrub uses a proprietary method called the Salt-in-Oil formula. Precious botanical oils envelop each grain of mineral-rich Dead Sea salt, allowing gentle strokes over the skin to remove dead surface cells while supplying oils. According to the brand’s official figures, one jar is sold worldwide every ninety seconds.

On fragrance development, Piatok has said that he regularly looks for new scents in France and England. Matching fragrances are used across the scrub and other products, giving the whole experience a sense of continuity.​

Glass Containers and Packaging That Recall Soap Sold by Weight

Design is another major pillar of SABON’s identity. Kotler-Levi’s approach seeks a vintage feel and warmth. Clear glass containers, allowing the contents to be seen, are a favored form of packaging. Using glass rather than plastic reveals the texture and color of the contents directly, visually expressing confidence in the materials.

The shops follow the same philosophy. Simple interiors made with natural materials put the products at center stage, evoking the sense of abundance found in a street market. Each shop has a water stand made of Jerusalem stone, where staff invite visitors to try products on their hands. It symbolizes SABON’s emphasis on the comfort of home and warm hospitality.

The strong commitment to gift-giving is also noteworthy. Carefully wrapping products with satin ribbons, tissue paper, and stickers is intended to turn them into elegant art. SABON’s official concept presents gifts as symbols of love and gratitude.​

The Fragrance Range

A Signature Scent Born in 1998

According to SABON’s official website, its first original fragrance, Patchouli Lavender Vanilla, was created by the brand’s co-founders in 1998. It is an oriental fragrance with earthy, exotic patchouli at the top, soothing, tranquil lavender, and a warm, sweet base of amber, vanilla, and musk.

Japanese perfume-review sites have also praised it as not overly sweet, with a subtle trace of vanilla. Since its introduction, it has remained the signature scent used throughout SABON’s body-care ranges. It would be fair to call it the scent most closely associated with the brand.

The Structure of the Fragrance Range

SABON’s fragrances extend across almost every product category, including body scrubs, shower oils, body lotions, bath salts, aroma diffusers, and eaux de toilette. The concept of coordinating the entire body in one scent thus underpins the structure of the brand.

Representative fragrances currently offered include:

• Patchouli Lavender Vanilla — The signature: exotic, oriental warmth​
• Delicate Jasmine — Jasmine, a lily-of-the-valley heart, and a lilac base​
• Green Rose — The green freshness of bergamot, lime, and citrus, with floral rose​
• Lavender Apple — Soothing lavender and refreshing apple​
• Rose Tea — A gentle floral centered on elegant rose​
• Mango Kiwi — A burst of sweet-tart tropical fruit​
• Ginger Orange — A refreshing combination of bright orange and spicy ginger​
• Musk — A calm, romantic skin scent​
• White Tea — A clean, airy tea fragrance​
• Citrus Blossom — A refreshing citrus floral​
• Patchouli Citrus — A fragrance for the men’s range​

The Dead Sea Collection

SABON also offers a collection centered on Dead Sea mud. Sharing a salty, aromatic, green fragrance, it develops from sea-salt top notes through fresh eucalyptus to the grounded depth of cedarwood. With items including body cleanser, body scrub, body mask, and bath salts, the collection is intended for detox and intensive care.

The Three-Step Body-Care Ritual

The three-step body-care ritual is essential to understanding SABON’s range:​

1. Cleanse — Shower Oil, containing four botanical oils, olive, avocado, jojoba, and wheat germ, cleanses while moisturizing​
2. Exfoliate — Body Scrub combines Dead Sea salt with botanical oils to remove dead skin cells and reveal the skin’s natural radiance​
3. Moisturize — Body Lotion or Body Butter, rich in plant oils, locks moisture into the skin​

These three steps embody SABON’s philosophy of turning bathing into a ritual. Because the same fragrance runs through every step, the scents remain layered after use, creating a lasting effect.

By the Way…

• Ninety-four percent of customers were women: During the brand’s early-2000s development in Israel, SABON’s distinctive design and warm atmosphere reportedly earned particularly enthusiastic support from women, who made up ninety-four percent of its customers at the time.​
• The world’s first SABON l’Atelier SPA opened in Japan: On April 13, 2022, the brand’s twenty-fifth-anniversary year, SABON’s first permanent spa, SABON l’Atelier SPA, opened in Nakameguro, Tokyo. It also included a flower shop created with RIN, an organization that gives new life to flowers otherwise destined to be discarded. The Shenkin shop in Tel Aviv subsequently adopted the same concept.
• A French CEO with Jewish roots: Current CEO Joffrey Chartier is French and speaks French, English, and Spanish, but has also said that he is Jewish according to halacha, Jewish religious law. His family history reaches back to Spain during the Inquisition. The family story of an ancestor who was Napoleon’s traveling tailor is too fascinating to recount fully here.​