L’Oréal will acquire IT Cosmetics
Subject, of course, to all the customary approvals and standard regulatory hurdles, the $1.2bn acquisition has been a topic of discussion in the trade as well as among consumers all weekend.
With a collection of products named to evoke possibility and positivity, the company site summarizes IT Cosmetics as a brand “developed with leading plastic surgeons.”
“IT Cosmetics creates clinically proven, innovative, problem-solving color cosmetics and skin care products that harness cutting-edge, anti-aging technologies and high performance, skin-loving ingredients to provide you with serious beauty solutions designed to give you the power to look and feel your most beautiful! IT’s truly your beauty, but better,” exclaims the company.
Selling in
As is the emerging convention for acquisitions in the beauty industry, the IT Cosmetics leadership will stay at the helm, and the company will remain in Jersey City, New Jersey. It’s a strategy intended to keep success rolling along.
“Partnering with L'Oréal and utilizing the power of their global infrastructure will help us scale our mission in an even bigger way and we couldn't be more excited,” Jamie Kern Lima, co-founder and CEO of IT Cosmetics tells the press.
Kern Lima knows that practical ideas and optimistic marketing have gotten the brand to where it is today: “our makeup and skincare products are not only game-changing in their innovation, they are also life-changing for real women everywhere,” she says.
Starting out
Kern Lima founded IT Cosmetics in 2008 with Paulo Lima. And, the private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners has been a co-owner of the brand since September of 2013. That company’s strategy for IT has centered on product portfolio growth, increasing market share in the specialty beauty channel, and marketing initiatives to boost consumer and stakeholder familiarity.
Now the IT Cosmetics portfolio comprises over 300 SKUs across color, skin care, brushes, and tools. And the company has an impressive omni-channel presence, selling on QVC, in Sephora and ULTA, and via ecommerce too.
Bold and beautiful
According to the L'Oréal media release about the deal, IT Cosmetics sales for the 12 months ending in June of this year amounted to $182m.
Thusly, Frédéric Rozé, president and CEO of L'Oréal USA, explains that “IT Cosmetics shares L'Oréal's passion for product innovation and our belief that offering beauty for all is a deeply purposeful mission,”
Of equal import, Rozé notes that, “The brand has earned the devotion of its highly engaged consumers and we see potential for significant growth in the years to come.”
