Elisabeth King reports on Estée Lauder teaming with Courreges, TPG Private Equity buying into Beautycounter, L'Oréal purchasing another start-up, and Abercrombie & Fitch signing a major fragrance deal with Inter Parfums.
Estée Lauder teams with Courreges
French entrepreneurs Jacques Bungert and Frederic Torloting purchased the Courreges fashion label from its iconic founder - Andre Courreges - in 2011. Since the buyout the dynamic duo have not only revived the clothing side of the business, they have also reinvigorated its once lucrative fragrance license, including Empreinte and Eau de Courreges - global bestellers from the 70s and 80s.
In the storied French label's first foray into cosmetics, Courreges has teamed with to produce a 13-piece limited collection inspired by the 60s Space Age fashions that made Andre Courreges one of the most copied designers on the planet.
The Estée Lauder Courreges Collection is slated to debut in March through 900 prestige stores worldwide, including Selfridges in London, Macy's and Nordstrom in the US and Colette in Paris. Packaged in white cases with silver and translucent accents, retro makeup fans can indulge in Lip Visor, a high-shine lip gloss, The Ball Highlighter, a set of 60s style false eyelashes, Eye Amplifier eyeshadow, an Ultra White Eyeliner, a Hair Mascara and a Kabuki brush. The next spin-off? Watch out for electric cars bearing the Courreges name says Bungert.
TPG Private Equity buys into Beautycounter
Earlier this year, TPG acquired a majority stake in e.l.f Makeup & Cosmetics. The US private equity firm has pulled out its wallet again to buy a chunk of Beautycounter. Like Marcia Kilgore, who recently sold Soap & Glory to Alliance Boots, founder Gregg Renfrew is a serial entrepreneur. She founded Beautycounter in 2013 and the California-based direct retailer offers specialised free-from-nasties skincare and cosmetics.
More than 1500 "harmful" ingredients such as animal fats, formaldehyde and coal tar are banned from the brand's products, including the best-selling glow sugar scrub, vibrant eye perfector and routine clean cream cleanser. Renfrew, a former fashion executive, sold her online bridal registry site - The Wedding List - to Martha Stewart in 2001 and claims to have experienced a wakeup call about the dangers of potentially toxic ingredients in personal care after watching the doco, An Inconvenient Truth. Beautycounter products are sold through representatives, online and partnerships with retail chains such as J. Crew and Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle website Goop!
L'Oréal buys another startup
L'Oréal looms large when it comes to buyouts of successful brands such as NYX Professional Makeup. But the French multinational has also been trawling the world for innovative startups with technologies aimed at boosting its market leadership.
Following the recent acquisition of US-based Sayuki Custom Cosmetics for it customised foundation technology, Israeli startup Coloright has now joined the L'Oréal stable. Based in Tel Aviv, the company has developed a revolutionary hair fibre optical reader technology. CEO Sagiv Lustig will continue to helm operations but Coloright will become part of L'Oréal's global research and innovation network. The world's leading beauty player employs 77,500 people worldwide, including a research team of 3600 who fuel much of the innovation behind its 28 brands.
Abercrombie & Fitch sign a major fragrance deal with Inter Parfums
The casual, preppy US retailer has been struggling in recent years as its core youth market has diverted more funds to other essential purchases such as smartphones. But 2014 has been something of a turnaround year. Longterm Chairman Mike Jeffries has retired. Clothing logos are more subdued. There's less emphasis on hiring sexy staff and the pungent aroma of its best-selling fragrance Fierce has been dialled down 25% in stores.
More importantly, A&F opened its first store in China this year and launched a successful direct-to-consumer business throughout Asia. More funds will also be ploughed into social media and online sales. All strategies that make now the right time to sign a major fragrance deal with Inter Parfums, who have a strong track record in growing the perfume business of major fashion brands - most recently Jimmy Choo. The seven year deal has the potential to turn A&F into a global fragrance player but let's not bag Fierce. The woody, aromatic for men, first released in 2002, has many fans and women love it - a head turner with testosterone plus.
Snippets from the wires
- Travel retail accounts for 21% of 's global sales. The Swiss prestige skincare brand enjoyed a sales uptick of 10% in the channel this year says Laurent Marteau, Head of Travel Retail Worldwide for La Prairie. Announcing a new global strategy, he revealed that the brand will concentrate more on attracting new Chinese customers, especially tourists from China in North America.
- Kat Von D has been busy following her recent Sydney visit. The tattoo queen and TV celeb has launched a new interactive website. Fans can send in their Instagram photos and their idol will select the most interesting to post online.
- Coty's See By is the "little sister" of the multinational's pillar Chloe brand - now the fifth largest prestige fragrance franchise in the world. A new limited edition - See By Chloe Si Belle - will launch first in Asia and Europe in February.
- Coach shares spiked last week as analysts speculated that LVMH is interested in acquiring the bag maker. The US brand has been struggling in recent years and has diversified into men's and women's fashions with mixed success.
- London-based e-tailer My-Wardrobe has ceased operations and sold its domain name to Net-a-Porter for an undisclosed sum. The retailer has been trying to move stock over the past weeks via discounts of up to 70% and all staff will leave the company by early 2015.
