GENEVA, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — L’OCCITANE Group is proud to announce the 50th anniversary of L’Occitane en Provence, its heritage brand, and the genesis of the Group’s global vision. This milestone reflects more than the longevity of the iconic Maison L’Occitane en Provence. It stands as a testament to five decades of forward-looking, sustainable growth, driven by expertise in formulating sensorial beauty and wellness products that use high performing natural ingredients and a deep-rooted commitment to people and the planet.

L’OCCITANE Group celebrates 50 years of L’Occitane in Provence

Born from a simple gesture in 1976 – the distillation of rosemary – L’Occitane en Provence was founded by eco-pioneer, Olivier Baussan, and developed internationally under the leadership of Reinold Geiger. The Maison L’Occitane en Provence has built 50 years of expertise in transforming high-performing ingredients such as Shea butter, Immortelle and Almond into formulas that combine sensoriality, efficacy and sustainability. Long before these expectations became mainstream, L’Occitane en Provence was committed to crafting high-quality products, formulated with responsibly sourced natural ingredients and delivering visible results.

Today, L’Occitane en Provence remains true to its founding philosophy, using natural origin ingredients and expressing its expertise through sensorial, powerful beauty and wellness experiences, designed to be as sustainable as possible. The journey has also been a deeply human one, woven through inspiring encounters and relationships along the way. L’Occitane en Provence’s formulation know-how is embodied in one of the brand’s most iconic products: Shea Hand Cream. Inspired by its founder’s early encounters in Burkina Faso, L’Occitane en Provence now works with over 6,000 women across shea cooperatives, using 100% organic, fair-trade shea butter to support both skin and the communities who produce it. 

Blending heritage with innovation, L’Occitane en Provence brings its product expertise and the savoir-vivre of Haute-Provence to guests around the world through more than 3,000 boutiques, 100 spas, 2,500 partner hotels, and its flagship destination, Le Couvent des Minimes, un Hôtel et Spa L’Occitane en Provence – creating a distinctive connection between people, nature and beauty.

The golden anniversary also marks a reinvention for L’Occitane en Provence, one where heritage meets modernity, reaffirming its roots, and its connection to the land, producers and artisans of Haute-Provence. This renewed focus ensures that L’Occitane en Provence’s legacy is not only preserved, but actively shared and re-imagined for the future.

For L’OCCITANE Group, this landmark underscores its founding ambition: a house of entrepreneur-led beauty brands united by quality, creativity and purpose, each free to flourish within a shared vision.

Media contact:
L’OCCITANE Group |  groupcommunication@loccitane.com 

Combined platform turns real-time network intelligence into guided and automated actions across every support channel – increasing digital engagement, reducing calls and truck rolls, lowering cost-to-serve, and improving subscriber confidence

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Plume Design, Inc. (“Plume”), the leader in intelligent services for ISPs serving connected homes and small businesses, today announced the acquisition of Sweepr, an AI-powered customer-care orchestration platform built for service providers. Sweepr processed more than 1 million customer interactions in 2025, helping operators deliver outstanding digital care experience to subscribers.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Sweepr helps telecom operators deliver personalized support journeys that increase digital engagement, reduce call center costs, and improve customer satisfaction across use cases such as onboarding, technical support, and billing.

The acquisition brings together two complementary strengths: Plume’s real-time, device-level network intelligence and Sweepr’s AI-native, no-code orchestration engine that connects into the systems providers already rely on. The combined platform helps ISPs move from seeing an issue to solving it faster,often without a call. Using real-time home network context, AI recommends the next best action, guides agents and subscribers, and safely automates resolution.

“With Sweepr, we’re connecting AI to the moments that matter, like when a subscriber needs help,” said Dan Herscovici, President and CEO of Plume. “By combining Sweepr’s care orchestration with unmatched visibility across Plume’s global dataset, we’re turning network intelligence into action at scale. This is a landmark shift in how providers reduce costs, improve reliability, and build trust that drives long-term subscriber value.”

AI that improves with real-world signal and outcomes
Plume’s cloud platform connects nearly half a billion devices, creating an unmatched foundation of real-world network and device telemetry across diverse home environments. By combining that intelligence with Sweepr’s orchestration and interaction data, the platform continuously improves which actions work best in specific scenarios so providers can deploy proven workflows faster and refine them based on measurable results.

What the combined platform delivers for ISP operators
The combined offering unifies intelligence, automation, and care into one platform that can be deployed quickly and integrated deeply. Key capabilities include:

• AI-guided diagnosis and resolution grounded in live in-home context — Detects issues, identifies likely root causes, and triggers the right workflow using real-time network and device signals.
• Context that follows the subscriber across every channel — Delivers true omni-channel experiences across app, web, IVR, chat, socials and live agents, without making the subscriber repeat information.
• Lower cost-to-serve through higher digital containment and faster agent resolution — Uses guided flows, dynamic knowledge, and recommends next best actions to reduce escalations, shorten handle time, and avoid unnecessary truck rolls.
• Proactive care and prevention — Spots degrading in-home conditions early and solves or mitigates issues before the subscriber experiences a problem.
• Fast time-to-value — Leverages no-code journey design, pre-built use cases, and integrations with existing OSS/BSS, CRM, IVR, CCaaS, and related operational systems.

“In customer care, context is everything,” said Alan Coleman, Co-Founder of Sweepr. “Sweepr adds context to every interaction — who the subscriber is, what equipment they have, what’s happening in the home right now, and what’s already been tried — so providers can solve the right problem the first time. Bringing that context together with Plume’s real-time network intelligence means fewer repeat calls, fewer truck rolls, and support journeys that feel clear and consistent for subscribers.”

Standalone Sweepr offering continues and expands to Plume customers
Sweepr will continue to be offered as a standalone platform, with ongoing support and continuity for existing customers. It will also be commercially available to Plume customers globally, extending its orchestration capabilities alongside Plume’s network intelligence. Together, the combined platform will enable providers to identify monetization opportunities by using real-time context and behavior to proactively engage subscribers with relevant offers.

Leadership and integration
Alan Coleman joins Plume as Chief Product Officer, leading combined product strategy and roadmap execution across the integrated platform. Before Sweepr, Coleman and Co-Founder Jim Hannon founded Brite:Bill, which was acquired by Amdocs in 2016. Hannon joins Plume as Chief Architect, focusing on technology and execution across the combined customer experience and orchestration roadmap. Coleman and Hannon bring deep telecom and broadband software experience and will work alongside Plume’s leadership team to accelerate outcomes for their service provider customers.

About Plume
Plume created the first managed Wi-Fi platform for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in 2016 and continues to lead today with a best-in-class solution for cloud-managed Wi-Fi, security, and experience. With almost half a billion devices connected to its platform, Plume is a trusted technology partner for more than 400 ISPs around the world, helping them deliver better Wi-Fi experiences and services for subscribers while streamlining their own operations and support systems. Plume leverages OpenSync®, an open-source framework that comes pre-integrated and supported on the leading silicon, CPE, and platform SDKs, and supports leading industry standards like RDK-B and prplWave. This approach allows Plume to offer turnkey and modular solutions, giving ISPs ultimate flexibility, while enabling simpler and faster deployments. Plume is providing ISPs an intelligence and innovation edge to stay competitive and adapt to the changing needs of subscribers and the market. Discover more about how Plume is empowering ISPs by visiting https://www.plume.com.

About Sweepr
Sweepr is an AI-powered journey orchestration platform built for telecom and broadband providers. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Dublin, Sweepr enables operators to design, govern, and automate highly contextual digital support journeys across self-service and assisted channels. Using a no-code platform, Sweepr integrates with existing operator OSS/BSS, CRM, and customer experience systems to observe real-time customer context and behavior and apply dynamic decisioning logic. This allows providers to deliver personalised experiences across onboarding, technical support, and billing while improving digital containment and reducing cost-to-serve. Sweepr also provides advanced analytics and insight into journey performance, helping business and operations teams continuously optimize support workflows, improve resolution outcomes, and drive operational efficiency.

XI’AN, China, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Recently, the opening lighting ceremony of the 2026 Chang’an Lantern Festival, themed “Thousands of Lanterns Shining on Chang’an and Welcoming Spring with Horses,” was grandly held in historic city of Xi’an, China.

The Festival, which used to open for Spring Festival and has been brought forward this year, blends the city’s millennium-old cultural heritage with modern spectacular lighting to unfold a splendid 96-day lantern showcase spanning the three festivals of New Year, Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival, recreating the Tang Dynasty spectacle of “a night aglow with blooming nights, a city alight with fire trees and silver flowers.”

This year’s Chang’an Lantern Festival features two main venues: Da Tang Furong Garden (Tang Paradise) and Xi’an City Wall, presented through intertwined land-and-water narratives.

Centered on three core themes — “Revitalized National Treasures,” “Poetic Charm of Chang’an,” and “Galloping Zodiac Horse” — the festival in Xi’an City Wall venue weaves cultural relics, poetry, and zodiac tradition into a dazzling tapestry. Over 50 national treasures from leading museums have been digitally and artisanaly reimagined, stepping out of exhibit halls and onto the ancient wall. During the Spring Festival, the “Hundred Alleys, Thousand Poems” market will be held at Yongning Gate, fully showcasing Xi’an’s cultural charm as the “Capital of Tang Poetry,” where verses transcend time and space.

The festival in Da Tang Furong Garden continues until April 6. It features 39 of Tang poetry-themed lantern groups that transform more than 300 classic poems into immersive, walk-through light-and-shadow scrolls. Over 30 intangible cultural heritage crafts, such as Suzhou embroidery, bamboo weaving, and traditional opera facial makeup, are ingeniously integrated into the lantern designs. By day, global visitors can enjoy hands-on traditional Chinese games like pitch-pot (touhu) and fifteen-pin bowling, plus live performances of classic operas. At night, travelers can experience spectacular water-based fire-pot displays, laser light shows, fountain performances, and interactive shows.

Over the past two years, the Chang’an Lantern Festival has crossed mountains and seas to become part of joint cultural events with the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). It has also traveled abroad to share the unique Chinese-style romance in the United States, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Accelerating Expansion into the U.S. Market to Empower Cross-Border Payments in China–U.S. Trade

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — XTransfer, the world’s leading B2B cross-border trade payment platform, made its debut as an exhibitor at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) in Las Vegas. This appearance marks XTransfer’s acceleration into the North and South American markets and its commitment to providing Chinese and U.S. foreign trade enterprises with secure, compliant, and efficient cross-border payment solutions, facilitating smoother global trade fund flows.

As the world’s largest and most influential trade show for electronics and technology, CES brings together technology companies, innovators, and industry professionals from around the globe and serves as a key platform to showcase cutting-edge technologies and business solutions. At CES 2026, XTransfer will comprehensively present its innovation capabilities and core strengths in B2B cross-border trade payments to global buyers, sellers, and partners, further enhancing its brand influence in the North American and global markets.

In recent years, China–U.S. trade has remained active with extensive participation from numerous SMEs in foreign trade. However, cross-border collections and payments can be cumbersome, costly, and carry significant compliance risks. Some enterprises are even forced to use non-compliant channels, creating pronounced risks to fund security. Leveraging the CES 2026 opportunity, XTransfer will focus on China–U.S. trade scenarios and provide a one-stop cross-border payment solution that helps enterprises reduce remittance and FX costs, improve cash turnover efficiency, and ensure end-to-end compliance and security in transactions.

On compliance and localisation, XTransfer continues to advance its systematic layout in the U.S. market and has established partnerships with multiple mainstream U.S. banks, enabling it to provide cross-border collection, settlement, and compliance support to customers nationwide. The company continues to strengthen its compliance credentials and has recently made progress on its U.S. licensing applications, having obtained money transmitter licenses from regulators in Alabama and North Dakota. As of November 2025, XTransfer has secured authorisation to conduct business in 25 U.S. states (of which 24 states have granted the relevant money transmission licenses; Montana does not require such a license), laying a solid foundation for long-term, compliant services to U.S. and global trade companies.

Through the XTransfer platform, enterprises engaged in China–U.S. trade can complete the entire process online, from account opening, collections and payments, and foreign exchange to withdrawal, without frequent bank visits. When both buyer and seller use XTransfer accounts, funds can be received quickly on a 24/7 basis in a secure and compliant manner, effectively avoiding fund hold-ups and significantly improving cash flow efficiency. Meanwhile, XTransfer can substantially reduce remittance and FX costs, genuinely easing burdens and boosting efficiency for MSMEs.

In addition to exhibiting at CES 2026, XTransfer is also a major partner supporting CES 2026 Asia Night. With strong support from the event organiser, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a former U.S. Ambassador to China, and the Nevada state government, the event gathered over 400 representatives from leading Chinese exhibitors, top-going-global brands and ecosystem partners, provincial and municipal commercial offices in the U.S., global industry and investment institutions, and technology leaders. XTransfer aims to leverage this platform to further promote industrial matchmaking and economic and trade cooperation between China, the U.S., and Asian enterprises.

XTransfer’s U.S. business lead commented at CES: “Participating in CES 2026 is not only a crucial step in our internationalisation strategy but also a key milestone in deeply cultivating the U.S. market and serving global trade enterprises. Going forward, XTransfer will continue to leverage its technological strengths and global compliance footprint to connect more international financial institutions and provide safer, more convenient, and lower-cost cross-border payment services for Chinese, U.S., and global foreign trade enterprises, further improving the facilitation of global trade.”

– End –

About XTransfer

XTransfer, world-leading B2B Cross-Border Trade Payment Platform, is dedicated to providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with secure, compliant, fast, convenient and low-cost foreign trade payment and fund collection solutions, significantly reducing the cost of global expansion and enhancing global competitiveness. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and has branches in Hong Kong SAR, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, the UAE, and Nigeria. XTransfer has obtained local payment licenses in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, and Australia. To date, XTransfer serves over 800,000 enterprise clients worldwide.

By cooperating with well-known multinational banks and financial institutions, XTransfer has built a unified global multi-currency clearing network and a data-based, automated, internet-based and intelligent anti-money laundering risk control infrastructure centred on SMEs. XTransfer uses technology as a bridge to link large financial institutions and SMEs around the world, allowing SMEs to enjoy the same level of cross-border financial services as large multinational corporations.

XTransfer completed its Series D financing in September 2021 and achieved unicorn status. The company has a diverse composition of international investors, including D1 Capital Partners LP, Telstra Ventures, China Merchants Venture, eWTP Capital, Yunqi Capital, Gaorong Capital, 01VC, MindWorks and Lavender Hill Capital Partners.

For more information, please visit: https://www.xtransfer.com

** XTransfer’s relevant money transmission and payment services in the United States are conducted under state licences and comply with federal BSA/AML and OFAC requirements. Service availability, fees, and settlement times vary depending on customer type, transaction corridor, state, banking channels, and compliance review; money transmission services are not offered or advertised in all states. For the latest licence list and status, please refer to the most recent disclosures on the XTransfer official website. This press release does not constitute an offer of services or a ‘licensed/available’ statement in any unlicensed jurisdiction.