Byredo is the latest niche brand to enter the portfolio of large luxury businesses, according to Le Figaro and The Fashion Network. L’Oréal is the French Group that purchased them, supported by Manzanita Capital, the British firm that owns Diptyque and Malin+Goetz. The Byredo brand will join the rest of the French conglomerate’s brands, which include Lancome, Giorgio Armani, Kiehl’s, Maison Martin Margiela, and others. As I reported on these pages in mid-2019, the most recent acquisitions were Parfums Mugler and Azzaro.
The corporation, which is well-known across the world, welcomed Nicolas Hieronimus to its general management team last May and produced €32.28 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. With a projected turnover of roughly 180 million euros, Byredo is expected to make a significant contribution to the group’s sales market area. The transaction is claimed to be for 1 billion euros, but this has not been officially confirmed.
According to the Fashion Network, “The [Byredo] label, which was launched under the Manzanita Capital fund in 2013, has subsequently expanded its range to include leather items and, as of 2020, a beauty line. Since Lucia Pica, a former cosmetics director at Chanel, took over the image and production of Byredo’s makeup product lines in March, the latter is a category on which Byredo is relying heavily.”
The Byredo brand was founded by Ben Gorham in Stockholm, Sweden, in the year 2006. The fragrances, including Bal d’Afrique, Blanche, Gypsy Water, and Mojave Ghost, were accessible in terms of scent. Byredo focused on quality, and all of its products are made in Sweden.
Gorham is a heavily tattooed former basketball player obsessed with the power of scents since his adolescence. When he graduated from The Royal School of Fine Arts in Stockholm, he met perfumer Pierre Wulff, who he convinced to reflect his ideas in fragrant creations. Byredo was launched shortly thereafter and is now synonymous with fine fragrances in the minds of its many many customers around the world.
According to the Fashion Network, “The [Byredo] label, which was passed under the Manzanita Capital fund in 2013, has subsequently expanded its range to include leather items and, as of 2020, a beauty line. Since Lucia Pica, a former Chanel beauty director, took over the image and production of Byredo’s makeup product lines in March, the latter is a section on which Byredo is banking a lot.”
Byredo perfumes are available in certain networks and department stores, as well as at the Byredo boutique on the world-famous Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, and, of course, in shops in Gorham’s home Sweden, London, UK, and China.
