Schick parent company buys luxe men's grooming brand Jack Black; Badgley Mischka to revive fragrance business and launch colour cosmetics; Crown Laboratories acquires celeb favourite tanning brand Vita Liberata; and two firsts for L'Oréal.
Schick parent company buys luxe men's grooming brand Jack Black
Launched in 2000, Jack Black is the best-selling men's prestige skincare brand in the US and is sold in Australia through Men's Biz. Edgewell Personal Care, the owner of Schick and Wilkinson Sword razors, has acquired the fast-growing brand for an undisclosed sum. The strategic acquisition is the multinational's first step into the luxury grooming sector.
In late 2016, Edgewell bought the British men's brand, Bulldog, which is sold in over 17,000 locations worldwide, including Priceline, Target and Woolworths in Australia. The mass market brand entered the US in 2011, but acquiring a parent company like Edgewell has springboarded major growth globally.
Jack Black is a strong and complementary addition to Edgewell's portfolio based on its unique brand positioning, prestige channel footprint and product lineup, notes COO Colin Hutchison. The brand also has an auto-replenishment razor service in the US which will allow Edgewell to go head-to-head with Unilever's Dollar Shave Club and P&G's Gillette on Demand.
Badgley Mischka to revive fragrance business and launch colour cosmetics
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Badgley Mischka has morphed from a red carpet designer favourite to a full lifestyle luxury brand. In 1992, German fashion heavyweight Escada acquired the US luxury fashion brand before selling it to Iconix, the world's premier brand management company, in 2004. During the latter's ownership, Badgley Mischka launched three fragrances with Elizabeth Arden – Badgley Mischka (2006), Fleurs de Nuit (2007) and Badgley Mischka Couture (2009).
In 2016, the eponymous founders Mark Badgley and James Mischka teamed with their longtime footwear licensee, Titan Industries, to buy back the brand in a joint venture. The company has just signed a global beauty licensing deal with TPR Holdings, whose portfolio of brands includes Cargo Cosmetics, Zirh men's skincare and Freeze 24/7.
The agreement will kickstart Badgley Mischka's fragrance business, with the first perfume to launch in the Northern Hemisphere Spring. Also, on the drawing board is a designer colour cosmetics range to debut later this year. TPR are looking forward to creating award-winning fragrances and colour cosmetics for the Badgley Mischka brand, says President Brian Robinson.
Crown Laboratories acquires celeb favourite tanning brand Vita Liberata
Non-toxic tanning brand, Vita Liberata, counts Emma Watson and Sofia Vergara as celebrity fans. Founded in Ireland in 2003 by Allyson Hogg, a former fashion model and TV presenter, the brand is sold in Australia through Priceline and Adore Beauty. Fast-growing US pharma company, Crown Laboratories, has snapped up a majority stake in Vita Liberata for an estimated $US30 million.
Crown Laboratories bought Australian sunscreen brand, Blue Lizard, in 2001. Production was shifted to the US, but the breakthrough technology was retained and the brand is highly recommended by dermatologists and paediatricians in the US. Vita Liberata was a pioneer of the growing vegan beauty trend and its products contain certified organic botanicals and are free from nasties. Available in 26 countries, the products are sold through prestige retailers such as Space NK and David Jones.
According to Jeff Bedard, President and CEO of Crown Laboratories: "We believe the Vita Liberata product line and the company's strength in premium retail are a terrific complement to the Blue Lizard sunscreen brand and builds on Crown's consumer healthcare strategy in the dermatology space".
Two firsts for L'Oréal
Being certified organic isn't the be-all and end-all of being more environmentally-friendly in the beauty industry. Major multinationals who adopt sustainability strategies such as reducing water and electricity usage, using recyclable packaging and more do more for the planet than small skincare brands with free-from claims. In an annual survey, Newsweek ranks the sustainability profiles of the world's biggest publicly traded companies. For 2017, L'Oréal has topped the rankings for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and carbon footprint with a score of 89.9 per cent.
In another industry-leading move, the French giant has become the first cosmetics company to reconstruct Chinese skin in a laboratory setting, in order to produce more region-specific skincare from anti-ageing serums to colour cosmetics and cleansers. Chinese skin responds differently to UV exposure and premature ageing than Caucasian skin. Created in L'Oréal's Shanghai labs, the reconstructed cells contain living cells from donors. The far-sighted strategy is a major bid to fend off competition from local Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean beauty brands
Snippets from the wires
- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the Danish actor who plays Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, has been tapped as the latest global spokesperson fro L'Oréal's best-selling Men Expert range.
- International travel tourism is the third largest export sector in the world. Global international tourist numbers soared 7 per cent in 2017 to 1.32 billion, reports the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Australian and New Zealand international passenger traffic rose 7 per cent, principally boosted by Chinese tourists.
- Luxury goods sales in China rose 20 per cent to $US22.07 billion in 2017, reveals a new report from Bain & Co. It's an extraordinary re-bound, says the global management consultancy firm, fuelled by Millennials increasing their spending on luxury handbags and prestige cosmetics. Bear in mind, though, that China's domestic luxury market represents only 8 per cent of global luxury sales because Chinese shoppers buy 75 per cent of their luxury purchases overseas.
- Being inexpensive, fashion forward and European hasn't cut it for Kiko Milano in the US. The cult Italian makeup chain quietly entered the US market in 2014, but has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will shutter the majority of its US stores.
Imagery: @badgleymischka
