Creed Grows Double-Digit Under L'Oréal, Eyes Billion-Euro Status

L'Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said Creed is growing by double digits, less than a year after the group paid 4 billion euros to acquire the 265-year-old fragrance house from Kering. "I am very happy with the performance of Creed," Hieronimus told analysts and journalists on the company's third-quarter results call last month. L'Oréal executives believe the brand can swiftly become a "billionaire brand," after sales reached around 350 million euros by February.

Creed joined L'Oréal's portfolio on March 31, part of a deal that took over holdings from Kering Beauté. Kering itself had bought Creed in June 2023 in a transaction estimated at between 2 billion and 3.5 billion euros; the brand posted sales of more than 250 million euros in its fiscal year ended March 31, 2023.

What does heritage mean for strategy?

"There's no redo to do on the brand," said Nathalie Berger-Duquene, chief executive officer of Creed. "This is a little bit of the magic. When you have a brand with such a strong positioning, storytelling and history, it's just to make the story of the brand accessible to people."

Founded in 1760 with roots in the U.K. and France, Creed is the oldest existing high-end niche fragrance brand. It maintains a fully vertical operation structure for perfume-making and an artisanal approach.

The story now unfolds in retail. In June, Creed opened a two-story, nearly 1,075-square-foot flagship on Paris' Rue Saint-Honoré, the city's central perfume-shopping thoroughfare, housed in a former mansion. It is the first freestanding store in France to carry the brand's new design, joining recent debuts in Berlin; Atlanta, GA; Melbourne, Australia; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Tokyo.

"We tried to have modernity and a residential feel when you enter," Berger-Duquene said of the boutique. "But celebrating also the heritage of the brand. It's always a very important balance for us."

The décor marks a break from the white marble and linear aesthetic of previous boutiques. Italian green marble, each piece unique, and walnut wood set the tone, with beige chosen for warmth. "That makes you feel like at home or in a very nice hotel around the world," she said. Staff serve as "storytellers," offering guests tea, water or Champagne, with seating on the ground floor and in an upstairs private salon. For time-strapped visitors, "we also have speed dating," she noted.

Archival pieces anchor the space, including a copy of a warrant from Napoleon III for Charles Creed and a vintage pair of scissors recalling James Henry Creed's start as a bespoke tailor on Conduit Street in London's Mayfair. "Everything started with tailoring, and now the house has shifted to fragrances, but always with the same precision," Berger-Duquene said.

How big will the retail network get?

Creed will have 75 freestanding stores by year-end 2026, including its three in Paris. "Each location is very precisely chosen," Berger-Duquene said, with openings targeted at major cities worldwide, including Asia and the Middle East. The U.S. remains the brand's number-one geographic region.

The stores stock the entire collection of roughly 70 fragrances. U.S. prices run from about $380 for a 50-ml. eau de parfum to $510 for a 100-ml. edp, alongside colognes, absolutes, candles and home atomizers. Boutique exclusives are in the works; the Saint-Honoré location is the only one carrying Fleurissimo Saint-Honoré.

Where do the ingredients come from?

Creed fragrances contain up to about 40 percent natural ingredients, and master blenders work directly with farmers, generation to generation, to select exact quality and keep scents consistent. "These people are really artisans," Berger-Duquene said.

The late Olivier Creed, sixth-generation family member and master perfumer, was quoted: "Our millésime perfumes are blends of high-quality natural raw ingredients that are weighted, mixed and macerated, in most cases by hand, in a small artisanal factory near Fontainebleau, France. The process is labor-intensive, but Creed is driven by artistry and perfection." Bottles are handcrafted in France; the company ethos reads: "When others industrialize, we ritualize."

New launches follow the same logic. Oud Zarian was built around an 80-year-old oud from a producer who wanted it magnified. "It's a very different way of creating fragrances, where the key ingredients – and super noble ingredients – are in the heart of the creation," Berger-Duquene said. Iris Debonair, introduced in September, highlights iris from Landes, France, and lavender from Kent in the U.K.

Aventus, from 2010, remains the bestselling scent. Wild Vetiver, launched in March around an English garden party theme, is drawing more women and younger consumers into boutiques. "Since [its introduction], we can see that more women are entering our boutiques and younger consumers," Berger-Duquene said. In China, where Silver Mountain Water is beloved and consumers skew younger and more feminine, she said Creed "has a place around the table."

The brand still builds its following largely by word-of-mouth. "It's for those who know," Berger-Duquene said. "This is also the beauty, and we don't want to change it."