L’Oréal is plotting the release of its first Gucci Beauty products for as early as 2028, the beauty giant’s CEO Nicolas Hieronimus has revealed.
The licence to produce the beauty and fragrance lines for the luxury fashion brand will pass to L’Oréal from Coty from 1 July 2027.
The licence had initially been set to be transferred in 2028 after L’Oréal inked a deal with Gucci’s owner Kering to produce beauty and fragrance for the Italian fashion houses, as well as its other luxury brands.
However, L’Oréal, Coty and Kering last month agreed to an earlier takeover of the licence, with an early termination fee of around US$400m set to be paid to Coty.
“We announced the anticipation of the Gucci licence by one year,” said Hieronimus in a call with investors discussing L’Oréal’s first half financial results.
“This means that our team will kick off the transition in September and launch the first product as early as 2028.
“I am extremely excited about what lies ahead.
“Gucci is one of the most iconic brands in luxury, and we have an unrivalled track record of turning licences into success stories.
“Prada Beauty and Valentino Beauty went from less than €100m to over €700m in sales in just four-to-six years.
“YSL Beauty is a €3bn brand in beauty on par with fashion.
“So, the potential is huge, given that for Gucci, sales in beauty are only a fraction of goods in fashion.”
Meanwhile, Hieronimus elaborated on comments he made to The Financial Times that Gucci “has to become a multibillion-euro beauty brand”, comparing the brand to YSL Beauty’s revenues.
Under Coty, Gucci Beauty’s current revenue is estimated at around US$600m, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank.
Responding to a question about his comments on the call with investors, Hieronimus said:
“Gucci has to get bigger at some point.
“It will take time because, first of all, now that we have anticipated the licence, our team will be built and set up to start working on 1 September.
“We will work on new projects that will probably appear in 2028. We will get the products and turnover in July 2027.
“So, it will probably take time, but I am super-ambitious for that brand.
“It is a beautiful brand. I was happy to see that the [fashion] couture numbers [from Kering] are getting a bit better, [and] that the Demna [Gvasalia, Creative Director] takeover of the couture is appealing to fashion addicts.
“That is why anticipation was important, to synchronise the reacceleration of beauty with the reacceleration or rebirth of fashion.”
Responding to a question on how the Gucci brand will be managed among its other Luxe brands, Hieronimus said: “That is what we do.
“We make sure that each brand has a different persona, a different target, a different way to to express beauty, and that we have developed YSL [Beauty] next to Armani, and we are now developing Prada and Valentino without any negative impact on the other brands.
“We will do the same with Gucci.”
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