Perfumer Jean-Michel Duriez, who joined Jean Patou under perfumer Jean Kerléo in 1997 and has been their in-house perfumer since Kerléo retired in 1998, will continue in his current role while taking on similar duties at the house of Rochas.
Rochas and Jean Patou are currently owned by Proctor & Gamble.
(via fr.fashionmag, abc-luxe)
I know it's a common occurrence, but I got startled for a second, seeing that P & G owned Rochas and Patou.
I thought the same thing: “Proctor & Gamble” doesn't sound nearly as posh or sexy as “Patou,” does it?
I'd actually be curious to see a list of holdings of all these global conglomerates. I know LVMH owns a lot, but it almost seems like the next stage will be “Serge Lutens, brought to you by Unilever/Nestle” or “L'Artisan, a division of Johnson & Johnson.”
Yep…that's the way the cookie crumbles. It's P&G's “Prestige” division, if that helps any.
I report ownership (or license ownership) in the Perfume Houses pages when I can figure it out, but there isn't any chart showing the whole thing. Serge Lutens, you know, was largely bankrolled by Shiseido, but I don't really understand the ownership structure at the moment. His export line might be his “own”. L'Artisan was owned by Cradle Holdings for a time, but they're independent again now.
I remember a time when everything was owned by a mysterious entity called “Beatrice”. One does wonder how much the ultimate ownership influences the product. Clorox bought Burt's Bees this year, and I have been waiting for the products to go to crap, but so far my lip balm is safe.
Yeah, it's hard to tell how much difference it makes to the consumer — but would think it would be a very different thing to work for Burt's Bees, or Burt's Bees under Clorox, you know?
Very typical in the past decade or so — like the Tom's of Maine couple selling the company to Colgate-Palmolive, Body Shop's late Anita Roddick selling to L'Oreal, and Ben & Jerry's being sold to Unilever. I believe in all cases the contracts probably protected some of the “ethical integrity” of the original management philosophy, but it's hard to say what all the ripple effects are to consumers, workers, and a lot of people in between. I personally find some of this stuff fascinating, especially the ways it has an impact (or not) on customer loyalty.
Ben & Jerry's was a blow. Admittedly, haven't seen any change in the product as a consumer though.