Puig acquires the licence for Jean Paul Gaultier fragrances

By

Corentin Chauvel

Published
Jan 5, 2016

There is a little more Jean Paul Gaultier at Puig. Since 2011, the Spanish group has been the majority shareholder in the company that manages the French designer's fashion business, and from 1st January it also owns the licence for his fragrances. 

The latter was held since 1993 by Japanese group Shiseido - the fragrances being distributed by its Beauté Prestige International subsidiary - with whom Puig has been negotiating in the course of the last few months. The licence's expiry date was set for next June, but the Catalan group managed to bring it forward to 1st January. The value of the transaction was €90 million. 

For the first year, this acquisition is expected to be worth 10% of the group's revenue, which reached €2 billion in 2014, according to WWD. Marc Puig, the group's CEO, has in fact told the magazine that the French designer's licence "has the potential for being a major contributor to our portfolio," since it is a brand "enjoying a very strong personality, the legacy of its founder."

However, expansion will focus only on Jean Paul Gaultier's two best-sellers (‘Classique’ for women and ‘Le Mâle’ for men), which are to be promoted at the expense of the brand's other fragrances and products (make-up etc.).

Puig also features in its portfolio the fragrances by Carolina Herrera, Prada, Valentino, Nina Ricci and Paco Rabanne, and last year also acquired British brand Penhaligon's London and French brand L'Artisan Parfumeur Paris.