Bobbi Brown leaves Bobbi Brown. Jennifer Anniston exits Living Proof. Revlon purchases Elizabeth Arden for US$870 million. L’Oréal acquires IT Cosmetics for $1.2 billion. In cash. Coty merges with P&G Specialty Beauty Business, taking on 43 big league brands, including Wella and Max Factor. Estée Lauder brings Becca on board. And then picks up Too Faced for $1.4 billion, making it the company’s largest acquisition ever.
And that’s not even close to counting all the mergers and acquisitions that rocked the cosmetics world in the last year. A year that will go down in beauty history as the epitome of shakeups.
Yes, the beauty industry’s scorecard of mergers and acquisitions seems more laden with intrigue than even the NBA basket ball teams or the Football League. It might surprise you to know that the entire world of makeup, skincare, haircare and perfumes is dominated by a few key players – all multi-billion dollar corporations with ownership over multiple major brands.
Here’s how it breaks down at the beginning of 2017.
L’Oréal Group
The almost-100-year-old L’Oréal group is headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris. It began with the hair colour business, under French-German chemist Eugène Paul Louis Schueller, and employs almost 20,000 chemists today. Nestle holds a 23.29% stake in the group.
Estée Lauder Companies
The family-run company that began with just four products – Skin Lotion, Cleansing Oil, Creme Pack and Super Rich All purpose Creme – in 1946, is one of the world’s leading cosmetic conglomerates 70 years later.
Shiseido Group
Established in 1872 by Arinobu Fukuhar in Ginza, Tokyo, Shiseido was not only Japan’s first “western style” pharmacy, it was also the one that launched ice cream in the country. The Shiseido Ice Cream Parlour branched off in 1928 and is still in business today.
LVMH
What to say: Seems Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy has a finger in every pie, including Sephora, our favourite beauty playground.
Kendo
Kendo, owned by LVMH, is an incubator company that singularly focusses on developing niche brands that end up being retailed by the group-owned Sephora. Next project: Fenty Beauty, a makeup brand created by Rihanna.
Unilever
The world’s third largest consumer goods company has a robust beauty arm, with standouts like Kate Somerville, Murad and Vaseline. It’s of British-Dutch origin and is co-headquartered in Rotterdam and London.
Proctor & Gamble
The US-based multinational just divested itself of around 100 brands, many of those in the beauty segment going to the Coty Group. The logic was to streamline the company and concentrate on the approximately 65 brands that contribute 95% of the group’s profits.
Johnson & Johnson
The 130-year-old consumer goods company is a model of sustainable development. It was ranked third among the United States’s largest companies in Newsweek’s “Green Rankings”, based on its constantly-evolving environment friendly policies.
Beiersdorf
This German company runs the gamut from mass beauty like Nivea to a prestige brand like La Prairie.
Coty
Coty’s $12.5 billion merger with Proctor & Gamble’s Specialty Beauty Business last year has made it the world’s third largest beauty company.
Kao
This Japanese company is going truly multinational, in the way it’s picking up British classics like Molton Brown and John Frieda.
If you want to see the evolution of the beauty industry, here is my older post containing the stack-ups in 2015. It’s interesting to see how things have moved around, much like the NFL tables!
Which of these surprised you the most? Is there anything I have left out? Tell me in the comments section below!
Anubha Charan is a powerhouse in the luxury beauty industry, with over 15 years of expertise shaping the global beauty narrative. As the former Beauty Director at Marie Claire, she worked with the magazine's French headquarters to craft cutting-edge beauty content for international audiences.
Anubha's bylines have appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious publications, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, WebMD, and Architectural Digest. She is also the co-author of Paris Bath & Beauty, a Simon & Schuster book on French beauty rituals.
Doug McCann says
It reminds me of the social media and software companies. Although these firm buy start ups on a prayer they are successful. Consolidation. Same with banks in the 90s. Losing individuality which seems a shame.
Beth says
None of the links to show the company holdings work
Diane Consalvi says
Who owns Revolution Beauty?
pizza tower says
L’Oréal is one of the largest beauty companies in the world and owns numerous well-known brands, including L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline New York, Lancôme, Garnier, Kiehl’s, Urban Decay, Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, and Giorgio Armani Beauty.
melon playground says
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melon playground says
Bobbi Brown, the founder of the makeup brand Bobbi Brown, has left the company, indicating a significant change in its ownership or management structure.
skibidi toilet says
That is so surprising. L’Oréal, which owns several popular brands, is among the biggest beauty companies globally.
suika game says
Estée Lauder, never one to shy away from bold moves, adds Becca to its roster and then stuns the industry by acquiring Too Faced for a jaw-dropping $1.4 billion.
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igrofresh says
One of the key factors behind L’Oréal’s success is its commitment to innovation and research. The company invests heavily in scientific research and development to create cutting-edge products that meet consumer needs and preferences.