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"Either you can use television
to accelerate your consumption
considerably, and that means in-
vesting heavily, or you don't use
it, and you know that you are go-
ing to remain small, somebody
else is going to do it, and you are
going to be left on the side."
Gad Propper, whose family
holds 13 percent of Interbeauty,
is vocal in his support of L'Oreal,
noting that the company is the
"first French multinational firm
to invest in Israel."
He brushes off questions re-
garding the Arab boycott. Inter-
beauty, he says, has been
distributing L'Oreal products for
more than 10 years.
L'Oreal manufactures a wide
variety of products in addition to
those that bear its name, includ-
ing Helena Rubinstein, Lancome
and Biotherm.
"L'Oreal joined Interbeauty in
April — when All three degrees of
the boycott were active," Mr. Prop-
per says. 'They didn't pay atten-
tion to the boycott at all. They
invested in an Israeli company
and they bought Israeli products.

"Perhaps at that point it would
be advantageous to export some
of the products back to Europe
rather than building factories in
other places — that would be,
perhaps, stage two of the plan.
"Stage three depends a great
deal on the political evolution of
this part of the world. That is be-
yond my control, of course. If all
goes well, we would hope to see
Israel as the regional hub of all
our activity in this part of the
world."
In addition to attending to
business matters in Israel, Mr.
Owen-Jones paid courtesy calls
on Knesset representatives, Fi-
nance Minister Avraham Shohat
and President Ezer Weizman.
An avid pilot, the L'Oreal ex-
ecutive spent much of his time
with Mr. Weizman discussing
aeronautics rather than eco-
nomics. Mr. Owen-Jones and his
entourage of executives and their
wives also toured the country.
It was Mr. Owen-Jones' first
visit.
"It was a shock to see how
physically beautiful the country

"All of this went against the
charter of the boycott. Whoever
says this is a boycott company
should take a look at what they
are doing.
"All we can hope is that other
French multinationals who did
or did not boycott Israel will fol-
low L'Oreal's example, and that
would help us all."
L'Oreal's Israeli representa-
tives speak enthusiastically of
sending shampoo to Europe and
across the Arab world. Mr. Owen-
Jones himself is hopeful — but
cautious.
"You have to walk before you
run. For now, this production is
a straight substitute for imports,
and that is important in and of
itself," he says.
Once the productivity of the
plant is increased — what he
refers to as "stage one" of his ex-
pansion plan — then the compa-
ny can investigate the possibility
of exporting.

is and how war in everybody was,"
he says.
He was particularly struck by
the level of appreciation his hosts
had for the investment he had
made through Interbeauty.
"This country has a virtue. It
is still small enough that if you
do something, you feel like you've
made a contribution.
"If I started a new factory in
America, I wouldn't be able to
change the Gross National Prod-
uct in the United States. But in
Israel, one can make a difference.
That's a very exciting feeling."
Mr. Owen-Jones confesses
freely that business was his sec-
ond career choice. After studying
French and German at Oxford,
he was ready to pursue his moth-
er's dream and head for the diplo-
matic service.
Unfortunately, his timing was
off.
"It was the late 1960s, the
British Empire was being dis-

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