Next Acquires Fabled by Marie Claire from Ocado
Next and Ocado announce that Next has acquired Marie Claire Beauty Limited from Ocado.
Marie Claire Beauty Limited owns the Fabled by Marie Claire Brand and operates the Fabled.com website and a Fabled By Marie Claire premium beauty store in central London.
Since launching in August 2016 Fabled has established a reputation as a content-led premium beauty retailer offering over 250 brands. Next and Fabled have collaborated over the past 8 months and, as a result of this collaboration, Next decided to acquire Fabled.
Simon Wolfson, Next's chief executive said that "Fabled have developed an extensive range of premium beauty brands, an online business and a retail presence. Fabled's experience and expertise bring an opportunity for the Next Group to develop an extensive premium beauty business supported by our Online and Retail platform".
Fabled was previously owned by Speciality Store Limited, a subsidiary of Ocado Group Plc. Next acquired Fabled for a small upfront payment and an earn-out based on sales in each of the four years ending Jan 2021 – Jan 2024, with a minimum guaranteed payment of £3m. The deal represents a present value (PV) to Ocado of £8m as a result of future expected earnings.
Next currently sells over 100 beauty brands on next.co.uk through Fabled, including Estee Lauder, Clinique, Benefit, Smashbox, The Ordinary, GHD, Dermalogica, Aveda, Illamasqua, Elemis, Burberry, By Terry, Rituals, L'Occitane, Perricone, Gucci, Emporio Armani and Boss and is set to launch many exciting new brands during this year.
Amanda Scott, MD of Fabled by Marie Claire, said "Since Fabled was launched in 2016, we are proud to have built an engaging destination for content lead premium beauty. We now have an exciting opportunity to combine complementary capabilities with Next which will enable us to accelerate our plans for developing and extending the range, services and channel offer. We look forward to the continued growth and success of Fabled by Marie Claire as part of the Next Group".
Justine Southall, MD of Marie Claire, adds "This is an exciting opportunity for us to continue to develop the partnership. Next is a hugely impressive business. Premium beauty complements their own offer and builds on the success they have had in developing the fashion brands through their Label business".
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado, said "The recent JV with M&S has meant that the centre of gravity at Ocado Group has shifted. In the light of our strategic evolution, and given the success of the collaboration between Next and Fabled, we decided that it would be in the best interests of all parties to now pass the baton so that Next can take Fabled forward. We wish them all the best in this endeavour".