L'Oreal Out? Puig Acquires Swedish Fragrance Brand Byredo

Recently, the Spanish Puig Group, which owns Penhaligon’s and L’Artisan Parfumeur, announced the acquisition of a majority stake in the Swedish fragrance brand Byredo. The specific transaction amount was not disclosed. This means that the previous rumors in the industry that L'Oreal Group and Estee Lauder Group both intend to acquire Byredo's plans have failed.

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On May 31, BST (the time of this article is all Beijing time), Spanish perfume giant Puig announced the acquisition of Byredo, the top luxury fragrance brand in Sweden. At present, Puig has not announced the scale of equity and transaction costs. Puig Group said that Byredo founder Ben Gorham will continue to guide the creative direction of the brand, while UK-based investment fund Manzanita Capital will remain as an investor.

According to public information, Puig, a Spanish beauty and fragrance giant, was established in 1914 and has 26 branches around the world, and its products are sold to 150 countries and regions. It owns perfume brands Penhaligon’s, L’Artisan Parfumeur, German cosmetic raw material brand Derma, Greek beauty care brand Apivita, French natural skin care brand Uriage, and ISDIN, which holds 50% of the shares.

Founded in 2006, Byredo's core product is perfume; In 2013, Byredo received investment from British fund Manzanita Capital, and gradually extended its business to the field of leather goods, launching handbags and other products. In March 2022, Byredo and Chanel makeup artist Lucia Pica reached a partnership to jointly develop a new line of makeup. According to multiple media disclosures, Byredo’s sales in 2021 will be $143 million, with an annual growth rate of 63%.

Before determining the Puig Group as the final buyer, the French "Le Figaro" revealed that the international beauty group L'Oreal and Estee Lauder both intend to acquire Byredo for an amount of 1 billion euros (about $1.065 billion). Just as the news spread, Puig Group from Spain became Byredo's ultimate buyer.

Although the transaction amount was not disclosed, judging from the previous estimate of 1 billion euros (about $1.065 billion) and Byredo's excellent performance, the Puig Group must have made a big price this time to win Byredo from these "Giants". Of course, it is not surprising that Byredo, as a hot new star in the perfume field, was finally won by the Puig Group.

It is worth noting that Byredo has initially formed an online and offline channel pattern in China. In November 2019, Byredo officially entered China and opened its first boutique in Shanghai, China, and then opened offline stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu and other places. So far, according to Byredo's official WeChat account, it has opened 10 offline stores in China.

In July 2021, Byredo entered China's mainstream e-commerce platform Tmall and opened the brand's official flagship store. At present, the Byredo flagship store has more than 195,000 followers, and there are 105 SKUs in the store, covering perfumes, lipsticks, eyeliners, hand creams, shower gels, body lotions and other categories. Among them, the product with the highest monthly sales in the store is the perfume "Rose of No Man's Land ", which is priced at $210 and has a monthly sales of 1,000+.

Puig Group's business operations in China are also very frequent. Starting in the second half of 2021, Puig Group has successively opened stores for its fragrance brands Penhaligon’s, L'Artisan Parfumeur, and beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury. These three brands have previously entered the Chinese market through online e-commerce. After entering offline for the first time in 2021, they have opened more than 10 stores in total.

In September 2021, Puig exclusively invested in the Chinese fragrance brand Scent Library. With an amount of tens of millions of US dollars, it once refreshed the financing height of the Chinese fragrance track. It is reported that this financing is also the first time Puig Group has invested in China. This is undoubtedly a key signal for it to completely enter China, paving the way for the subsequent development of Puig Group in the Chinese market.

Shortly after investing in the Scent Library, Puig Group once again joined hands with eBeauty, a Chinese agency operator, to officially open the first general warehouse in China, and jointly built an omni-channel smart warehousing supply chain system. This move may open a green channel for Puig to open the Chinese market.

In recent years, the perfume track in China's capital market has been extremely hot. Puig Group's acquisition of Byredo, an influential brand in China, not only guarantees its right to speak in the segmented field, but also will become an important opportunity for its future development in China and even the global market.