FRANCE/ITALY. French-based fragrance licensing company Selective Beauty and Italian-based manufacturing and licensing company Morris have announced their intention to merge their distribution organisations worldwide. This is consistent with the announcement made last October in Cannes by Enrico Ceccato, CEO of Selective Beauty and Morris, and Managing Partner of Orlando Italy.
At that time Ceccato said that “…the group was going to implement a business merge to become a top player in the fragrance industry, backed by a clear vision for the future and strong financial partners.”
For the Italian market, which represents about 45% of the group’s sales, Selective Beauty has set up MSB Italia, a new distribution organisation based in Milan, which will distribute in the Italian market the products of owned brands and brands under licence and distribution of Selective Beauty and Morris.
Gianluca Brandini, formerly Finance Director of Selective Beauty Italia, has been appointed CEO of MSB Italia.
For the international market, which represents the remaining 55% of the group’s sales, Morris will distribute the products of owned brands and brands under its licence, plus the products under licence of Selective Beauty.
Ceccato explained: “This is a key step in our possible plan to combine Selective Beauty and Morris into one fully integrated organisation. Over the last few months, I have been visiting all key markets and had clear indications of the potential for our brands . I am confident that our distribution partners will give us full support to become an increasingly effective sales and marketing organisation.”
About the group
Morris is an Italian developer, manufacturer and marketer of fragrance and cosmetics products. The company, set up in 1946, was acquired in March 2007 from Henkel by Investindustrial, a leading South-European fund with over €2.1 billion of assets under management. Morris’ fragrance licence brands include international brands such as Ferrari, La Perla and Sergio Tacchini, in addition to other Italian brands. In January 2008, Morris acquired the Atkinsons business from Procter and Gamble. Atkinsons markets and distributes body treatment products, soaps and perfumes under fully owned well known brands (such as I Coloniali). Another recently signed licence agreement is to develop and market fragrances for the famous Ducati brand. This new project was presented to distributors in Cannes. Morris is based in Parma, Italy, where it manages its own manufacturing unit.
Selective Beauty is a Paris-based developer, manufacturer and marketer of fragrance products. The company was set up in 2000 as a European distributor of perfumes and in 2005 it diversified its activities to licence. This change of business model resulted in some economic difficulties, and necessitated new financing. In July 2008 Investindustrial acquired the majority stake of the company’s capital from 3i and from its initial founders. Since the company required additional cash to finance its business, in July 2009, Investindustrial, together with the €200 million private equity company Orlando Italy, provided additional equity to the company. At the same time, Orlando Italy also entered the capital of Morris. Selective Beauty’s current licence brands include John Galliano, Trussardi, Max Mara, Iceberg and Benetton. Furthermore, Selective Beauty has a distribution joint venture in Italy with Interparfums.
As a result of these acquisitions, Morris and Selective Beauty are currently controlled by the same financial holding, in which Investindustrial has the majority and Orlando Italy has a relevant minority stake.
In September 2009, Enrico Ceccato became CEO of Morris and of Selective Beauty. Giovanni Borri, previously CEO of Morris, became Chairman of the Board of Morris and of MSB Italia Srl. Corrado Brondi, founder of Selective Beauty, remains a Senior Advisor of the group and Board Member of MSB Italia Srl.
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