The Estée Lauder Companies completes acquisition of DECIEM

Known as ‘The Abnormal Beauty Company’, DECIEM has been acquired by the American group Estée Lauder. An interesting acquisition, since the group is getting its hands on cosmetics brands with a disruptive and innovative profile in the beauty world.

But this announcement comes as no surprise, as The Estée Lauder Companies had already invested shares in the Canadian company in 2017, then increased its holdings in 2021, becoming a majority shareholder.  ‘We are incredibly proud of what DECIEM is accomplishing,” said Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer, ELC. “In our seven years of partnership, DECIEM has achieved impressive growth while continuing its core mission of reimagining effective, high-quality skin care for today’s diverse and sophisticated consumers. As a digitally native organization with a highly engaged following among millennial and Gen Z consumers, DECIEM helps to strategically expand our skin care portfolio, and we believe there are many more exciting growth opportunities ahead.’

Founded in 2013 by the late visionary Brandon Truaxe and led by Nicola Kilner co-founder and CEO, and Jesper Rasmussen, senior global vice president and managing director, DECIEM has several brands with highly innovative profiles. In addition to The Ordinary, the company includes NIOD, a pioneer in technology-based skin science, and AVESTAN, a fragrance brand. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, the company has five in-house laboratories.

The Ordinary, a brand with simple active ingredients and skincare products with shorter, concentrated formulas, is particularly popular with the younger generation, thanks to its marketing campaigns aimed solely at social networks. Today, it has achieved the feat of ranking second in prestige skincare in its home markets of Canada and the United States, and fourth in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the three months to 31 March 2024. According to the Estée Lauder press release: ‘The Ordinary is part of the ELC (Estée Lauder Companies) tier of growing brands, each with net sales between $500 million and $1 billion. Over the past two years, thanks to ELC's expertise and international network, The Ordinary has expanded its consumer reach globally by launching products in key markets such as India, the Middle East and South Africa.’

ELC completed the purchase of the remaining interests on 31 May 2024 using available cash in an estimated amount of $860 million. The total investment, net of cash, is approximately $1.7 billion for the three tranches.

The Estée Lauder Companies group's sales for the 2022 fiscal year ending June 2023 amounted to nearly $16 billion. On 5 February this year, it announced its latest results, disappointing expectations with sales of 4.28 billion dollars for the second quarter ended 31 December 2023, down 7% on the 4.62 billion dollars recorded for the same period the previous year.