Natura & Co.'s venture fund, Fable Investment, made an inaugural investment in Lyn Harris' Perfumer H.
WHO: Perfumer H is the British fragrance house created by perfumer Lyn Harris, a former Robertet perfumer who founded the London-based fragrance brand Miller Harris in the ’90s. She launched Perfumer H in 2015 with her husband Christophe Michel in an uncompromised desire to pioneer naturals back into perfumery.
Fable Investments is described by Natura & Co. as a "purpose-driven corporate investment vehicle" that builds on the Brazilian company's experience of scaling premium brands. The group will make 10 to 15 minority investments in small brands that already have proof of concept and a strong direct-to-consumer offering, investing between a few hundred thousand dollars up to about $10 million, depending on the deal. Fable will consider holding on to investments longer than the traditional private equity three to five years.
Fable technically sits under Natura & Co., but the company plans to leverage its portfolio company Aesop’s specific expertise in scaling without losing the soul of the brand to guide its investment brands, with Aesop Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Keeffe at the helm. Fable intends to leverage relationships that Aesop has had with suppliers, wholesalers, and channel partners, as well as general experience scaling.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Harris said of the investment, "Our ethos is simply to touch people with the true art of perfume making with no detail spared from the integrity of the materials to the hand-blown vessel that can be refilled. We truly believe that our partnership with Fable will assist the next phase of our journey and help us unlock the full potential of Perfumer H so we can touch more people and retain our important sustainability ethos."
Thomas Buisson, Director of Fable Investments and former GM of Aesop in Europe, said, “We’re delighted that our first investment is with a founder who epitomizes what we look for in investees. Lyn is an outstanding perfumer, who has put British perfumery firmly on the map. We’re thrilled to work with her as she grows the beautiful, unconventional Perfumer H into a globally recognized brand.”
The Fable team liked the idea of the Perfumer H investment because they saw Harris as someone who broke the mold, said Thomas Buisson and Aesop Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Keeffe. “We were really impressed by the dedication with which [Lyn] developed the library of fragrances and the way she managed to really combine exceptional workmanship with a sense of real creativity and have a fragrance that was not trying to follow any kind of commercial trends,” Buisson said.
“Lyn has built into her business model the concept of circularity and refill of the perfumes and the candles and that type of model … fits really well into the wider Natura & Co. perspective, and to an extent the business models we’re all trying to become,” said O’Keeffe. Natura & Co. has sustainability at the core of its business, and last year introduced further initiatives to address climate change and human rights, and bring circularity further into the business.
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