EXCLUSIVE: Zegna, Give Back Beauty Ink Licensing Deal
Zegna has a new beauty licensee.
The brand has signed a licensing deal with Give Back Beauty for the creation, production, marketing and distribution of fragrance and cosmetics for the brand, according to a joint statement from the two companies.
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Zegna’s beauty license was previously held by The Estée Lauder Cos., which wound down its designer fragrances division in 2021. It’s the second ex-Lauder license Give Back Beauty has taken over, since it also holds Tommy Hilfiger’s beauty license.
Corrado Brondi, founder and chief executive officer of Give Back Beauty, said he had measured expansion plans in the works for Zegna. “The starting point will be fragrances. Not all categories will be relevant, like makeup, but there is a lot to do with male grooming,” he said. “We believe there is something to build on skin care. But the first statement we make will be in fragrance.”
It’s Give Back Beauty’s first male brand, Brondi said, giving it “very good complementarity to the portfolio.” In the company’s luxury division, Zegna joins licensors Chopard and Elie Saab. Earlier this year the company unveiled a larger effort to incubate talent-led businesses, and even hired an industry veteran to do it. In that division, the company currently creates, manufactures and distributes Florence by Mills.
Per Zegna’s website, its fragrance offering currently entails seven stock keeping units, which range in price from $180 to $260.
Key markets include North America and its home market of Europe, in addition to the Middle East and promising growth in Asia. “We have a global brand that will be developed globally,” Brondi said. “But only in department stores and best-in-class perfumers. It’s going to be global but it’s going to be very selective within each market.”
As reported, Zegna Group’s sales for the third quarter climbed 20.8 percent, due to growth in China and a positive reception to Tom Ford’s spring 2024 women’s collection, which the company now produces under a licensing agreement with Lauder along with Ford’s menswear.
“The ‘culture of beauty’ has always guided the Zegna Group in its choices, based primarily upon the deep respect for people and the environment,” Gildo Zegna, chairman and CEO of Zegna Group, said in a statement. “Give Back Beauty’s renowned multicategory expertise and attention towards both innovation and sustainability make it the ideal partner to develop new beauty products for men that are perfectly aligned with Zegna’s responsible DNA and unique identity.”
In the U.S. market, prestige fragrance grew 13 percent in the first half, according to previously reported data from Circana.
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