Natura's Fable vehicle invests in Perfumer H

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 4, 2021

Body Shop owner Natura &Co has unveiled Fable Investments, which is a corporate vehicle set up to support beauty, health and wellness companies with high growth potential, strong innovation and unique selling points. And its first investment is in British perfumer Lyn Harris’s Perfumer H business.

It’s an unsurprising move for the company that has expanded fast by acquisition in recent years with Aesop, The Body Shop and Avon joining its original Natura brand. The new project also reflects a model seen in other sectors, such as fashion, where big names (like H&M Group) provide funding for promising smaller companies and get heavily involved in their ongoing development.

Natura’s investment in the companies it picks will see it taking minority stakes and it’s unclear for now whether it would want to fully integrate the chosen brands into its business empire over the long term. But it’s clear that the firm wants the operations it invests in to become much bigger.

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Fable director Thomas Buisson, who was previously GM of Aesop in Europe, said Natura has grown from its original brand to be the fourth largest pureplay beauty group globally in less than a decade. 

He highlighted its “proven model of successfully scaling premium, niche, purpose-driven brands while honouring their autonomy and unique identity”. 

And he said that Lyn Harris is a founder “who epitomises what we look for in investees”. The company aims to work with her “as she grows the beautiful, unconventional Perfumer H into a globally-recognised brand.”