The world of luxury is moving. The American cosmetics group Estée Lauder announced on Tuesday that it would buy the company of American designer Tom Ford for 2.3 billion dollars.
Tom Ford, 61, will remain until the end of 2023 the official creator of his company, valued at 2.8 billion dollars by the operation, specifies in a press release Estée Lauder, who hopes to close the operation in the first half of 2023.
A company launched in 2005
Originally from Texas, the designer launched his company in 2005 after serving as artistic director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Beyond its luxury ready-to-wear collections, it has also brought its name to lines of beauty products, accessories and eyewear.
Being placed “under the stewardship” of Estée Lauder will allow “the continuity and evolution of the Tom Ford brand” as one of the world’s leading luxury brands, the company said. Since the launch of the line in 2006, Tom Ford Beauty’s perfumes and make-up products had already been covered by a licensing agreement with Estée Lauder, which also owns MAC cosmetics, Clinique and La Mer face care and Aveda products.
The group expects Tom Ford Beauty to be able to sell products worth a billion dollars a year within two years; it relies in particular on the success of its luxury perfumes in the United States and China.
Tom Ford is “delighted”
By getting their hands on Tom Ford, Estée Lauder acquires the intellectual property rights to all of its lines. The company will no longer have to pay royalties for Tom Ford Beauty and will be able to take advantage of new sources of revenue by granting licenses itself. The agreement notably provides for the extension and expansion of the license granted by Tom Ford to Ermenegildo Zegna for clothing, accessories and underwear lines. The license currently granted to Marcolin for Tom Ford glasses will also be extended.
Tom Ford, for his part, felt that Estée Lauder was “the ideal home” for the brand. “They have been an amazing partner since the inception of my business and I am delighted to see them becoming the luxurious stewards of this new chapter of the Tom Ford brand,” he noted. According to Wall Street Journalother groups were in the running to buy Tom Ford, including the French company Kering, which already owns the Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga brands.