New version of Chanel No 5 to target millennials, global lip care market to reach US$1.5 billion by 2020, top 10 global beauty innovators, and private equity firm acquires VO5 maker for US$415 million.
New version of Chanel No 5 to target millennials
Lancôme La Vie Est Belle, Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium and Dior Poison Girl have captured a sizeable chunk of the audience once reserved for Chanel's family of best-selling fragrances. Chance and its flankers continue to do well with global sales up six per cent in 2015. The luxury French fashion house introduced a riff on its 95 year old treasure in 2007 - Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere. Although the rejuvenated juice enjoyed critical acclaim, it didn't live up to commercial expectations.
In September, Chanel will launch a revamp of its fabled icon called Chanel No 5 L'Eau. Billed as the fifth reinterpretation of the iconic scent, it's the freshest, sexiest take yet and designed to appeal to Millennials. Referencing the structure of the ancestor fragrance, the hero ingredient is Rose de Mai, harvested from Chanel's fields in Grasse during a fleeting two weeks in May each year.
What's different about Chanel No 5 L'Eau? Refreshing top notes of lemon, mandarin and neroli give way to a heart of Rose de Mai, ylang-ylang and jasmine and a drydown of cedar and white musk. The new fragrance will be housed in a clear crystal version of No 5's famous square bottle. Chanel has inaugurated a wait list for eager addicts and new fans.
Global lip care market to reach $US1.5 billion by 2020
That's the bullish prediction from leading analyst Technavio, which estimates the global non-medicated lip care category alone will grow by four per cent year-on-year to US$720 million by 2020. A figure that becomes more impressive when you consider that so many of the most popular lip care brands are mass market. But with big bucks up for grabs, prestige brands such as , , and have also carved out profitable niches.
Medicated lip care products from such key brands as and ChapStick are expected to reach US$616 million over the same period. The market for lip protection including SPFs is moving at a faster clip of 6 percent to hit US$143 million, driven by powerhouse brands such as and Johnson & Johnson.
The ever-growing number of pout-smoothing contenders tracks a strong trend to natural and organic lip care, says the Technavio report. An increasing number of products contain beeswax, the hero ingredient of the best-selling Burt's Bees lineup, cocoa butter, jojoba, shea butter and aloe vera. "In 2015, close to 42 per cent of women surveyed aged 18 years and above said they preferred using natural products".
Other leading brands in the global lip care market include , Nivea, L'Oréal, Revlon and Unilever. The sector is one of the few remaining beauty categories where brand loyalty remains very high, notes Technavio. But the task of keeping lips nourished has expanded to include new generation, multi-benefit lip shines. There's been a crop of sexy alternatives to keeping lips moist - don't call them gloss - in recent months, which blend a high proportion of nourishing plant-based oils with a strong colour pay-off. Leading the pack are Lancome Juicy Shaker and YSL Rouge Volupte Shine with many more to come in the second half of the year.
Top 10 global beauty innovators
Over the past few years, many cosmetic brands have relied on tried-and-true ingredients and technologies even for new product launches. Last year disrupted the play-it-safe trend, writes Vincent Caraher, president of Thomson Reuters IP and Science, in the media company's 2016 State of Innovation Report. "2015 was the year of many innovative firsts. In fact, it was one of the innovative years in history with double digit growth of 13.7 per cent".
The breakthroughs weren't evenly distributed, revealed the report. Skincare was way out in front, accounting for 40 per cent of all global innovations in beauty and personal care. Innovations in colour cosmetics dipped by 2 per cent, and perfume saw a 15 per cent decline. There were 10 clear leaders in the innovation game and all of them were multinationals with big R&D budgets.
Unsurprisingly, half were Asian - Korean, Japanese and Chinese. The inclusion of Aesthetic Technology Beijing, acquired by industrial giant Shandong Jiangquan in 2014, clearly shows that the Chinese are working hard to put a brake on the dominance of foreign brands in the multi-billion beauty market in China.
1) LG - Household & Healthcare ( Korea's second largest cosmetics company)
2) L'Oréal
3) Kao
4) Henkel (maker of Schwarzkopf)
5) P&G
6) AmorePacific (the Korean number one)
7) Aesthetic Technology Beijing
8) Unilever
9) Beiersdorf (Nivea, and Eucerin)
10) Kose
Private equity firm acquires VO5 maker for US$415 million
High Ridge Brands, originally created in 2010 by private equity firm Brynwood Partners to acquire the Zest skin cleansing brand from P&G, has scored a mozza payday. Over the past six years, the US-based company acquired the Alberto , Rave, Coast and White Rain brands to become the largest North American acquisition platform for "orphaned" personal care brands. In order to make itself more of a tempting takeover target, High Ridge Brands sold off several of its smaller brands to The Village Company late last year, including La Bella, Dep, Pure & Natural, Adorn and The Dry Look.
In the biggest deal in Brynwood Partners 32 year history, the company has sold High Ridge Brands to Clayton, Dubillier & Rice (CD&R) for US$415 million. One of the oldest private equity firms in the world, CD&R already owns 47.5 per cent of Sally Beauty, Alberto Culver's beauty supply distribution business.
Future personal care brand acquisitions across mass, drugstore and club channels are a major goal. "High Ridge Brands is a well-diversified portfolio of longstanding, resilient personal care brands with strong share positions in the personal cleaning and hair care categories", says CD&R partner Ken Giuriceo. "The business is highly scalable and will serve as a platform through which to consolidate the highly fragmented personal care products space".
Snippets from the wires
- Good news for Australian beauty brands keen to export to Singapore. Local beauty brands account for only 20 per cent of the beauty market in the island nation, reveals Nielsen. Singaporean beauty lovers overwhelmingly prefer international brands. By contrast, homegrown cosmetic brands in Indonesia have a 50 per cent market share.
- We're still waiting to hear about a new home for the Dolce & Gabbana fragrance license. D&G decided not to go to Coty in the P&G sell-off. But Christina Aguilera's scent business, the number one celebrity fragrance brand in Europe, has been picked up by Elizabeth Arden.
- Taste.com.au is a favourite go-to for those in search of culinary inspiration. In the latest EMMA readership data report, the food website ranked number one with a readership of 4.2 million. The other major magazine sites attracting an army of eyeballs are: New Idea and Woman's Day (both 3.1 million), Better Homes and Gardens (2.4 million) and the Australian Women's Weekly (2.3 million).
Newsletter image: Instagram.com/chanelofficial/
