Is LVMH about to launch a new beauty brand?

LVMH, the world’s leading luxury goods group, might be about to launch a new cosmetics brand. According to a job advert posted on LVMH’s official site on October 9, the French luxury giant, which in 2018 generated a revenue of €46.8 billion, is looking for an experienced manager to lead the development of a “beauty start-up.”

The job description in LVMH’s advert is that of a senior executive who will be in charge of “developing a new beauty brand within [the group’s] perfume and cosmetics division,” which currently includes Givenchy Parfums, Guerlain, Benefit and Make-Up For Ever. The manager will be tasked with developing a new product range, defining its market positioning and leading its commercialisation.

LVMH is looking for candidates who are “attuned to environmental issues,” in order to “take part in the development of new, sustainable solutions,” which suggests that the brand in question is likely to have an environmentally friendly positioning. The advert also indicates that the new manager will supervise a team of two people “at the outset,” hinting that this new beauty project is likely to grow in size.

LVMH also posted a second advert for the same project, for a junior product manager who will be working on the new brand's product development.

If these are indeed LVMH’s intentions, this new cosmetics brand will be following in the wake of Fenty Beauty, which the group launched in September 2017. Masterminded by Rihanna and LVMH, Fenty Beauty has been a resounding success since its launch online and via perfumery chain Sephora, also owned by LVMH, reportedly generating a revenue of nearly €500 million in 2018.

Riding the wave of Fenty Beauty’s success, last spring LVMH announced the launch of Fenty, a global luxury label developed by Rihanna in partnership with Bernard Arnault’s luxury group. Fenty was the subject of much speculation in early 2019, until the Barbados-born singer presented her first collection at a pop-up store in Paris at the end of May, only two weeks after the official announcement by LVMH. The collection then travelled to New York in June, establishing a pop-up presence there too, before premièring at the Galeries Lafayette department store on the Champs-Élysées during the Paris Fashion Week in September.

2019 seems to be an auspicious year for new projects for LVMH. The French group, which controls 75 luxury brands, took over Jean Patou in 2018, and is revamping the historic French fashion label, founded in 1914, with the help of designer Guillaume Henry, freshly arrived from Nina Ricci. The label was rechristened Patou last May, and revealed its first looks in June, ahead of its first official presentation at the recent Paris Fashion Week

Is LVMH about to launch a new beauty brand?

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