Photo: Ladies Care Tips (CC BY-SA 4.0).
L’Occitane is selling Elemis, the British skincare brand behind the Pro-Collagen creams sold in department stores, spas and cruise ships worldwide, to European private equity firm PAI Partners, The Business of Fashion reported. The price was not disclosed.
Elemis, founded in 1989, is projecting $339 million in sales this year – up 11% from 2025 – and is aiming to more than double that to $775 million by 2031 by growing in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and China, according to documents BoF reviewed. About half of its sales already come from online channels. L’Occitane paid $900 million in cash for the brand in 2019 and was reportedly seeking just under $1 billion this time.
The sale fits a wider pattern in beauty: big groups are slimming down to fewer, stronger brands, and private equity firms are buying the rest. Since delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2024, L’Occitane has sold its Grown Alchemist skincare line and brought in new leadership at Sol de Janeiro, its fast-growing fragrance and body-care brand. L’Occitane chairman and CEO Reinold Geiger called the Elemis sale an “important step” in becoming “a true multi-brand group.”
PAI Partners, which invests in consumer brands across Europe, said it sees room to grow Elemis in America and online “while preserving its distinctive British identity.”
For shoppers, nothing changes at the counter today – the same jars stay on the same shelves. What changes is the owner writing the checks for advertising, new products and American expansion, which over the next few years will shape how easy the brand is to find and what it costs.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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