US. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has acquired a majority stake in BlissWorld from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, as part of its drive to move its trendy W chain into the resort business. LVMH purchased a 70% stake in the cult beauty company from founder and celebrity facialist Marcia Kilgore in 1999, for an estimated US$30 million. Last year Bliss generated about US$40 million in sales. It is thought that Starwood paid around US$25 million for the brand.
The Bliss portfolio includes the Bliss and Laboratoire Remède product lines, and spas in London and New York. The brand’s retail/treatment doors include Sephora, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Harvey Nichols and Harrods.
Starwood will begin opening Bliss spas in its hotels later this year. It will also provide Bliss cosmetics products for guests in all its W hotels.
According to a statement, Bliss will be operated as a subsidiary of Starwood, and the existing management team – including Kilgore – will remain in place during the transition period. “I’m not going anywhere,” she told Women’s Wear Daily. “We’ve had a great run with LVMH, and I learned a great deal from our time as partners”¦I’m also looking forward to working with our new partners, Starwood”¦I am excited at all the new customers we’ll have a chance to reach this way. You’re always fighting for the consumer at the department store counter, but in hotels, you have a captive audience – of both men and women.”
Bliss is the latest in a long line of divestitures, as LVMH streamlines its brand portfolio. Last year alone, within its beauty business, the group sold its Michael Kors fragrance license to the Estée Lauder Cos (The Moodie Report.com, 12 May 2003), while the Lancaster Group picked up its Marc Jacobs and Kenneth Cole businesses. Last autumn, LVMH sold its Canard-Duchêne Champagne to the Alain Thiénot group (The Moodie Report.com, 6 October) and more recently, offloaded watchmaker Ebel to the Movado Group (The Moodie Report.com, 24 December 2003).
