Juliette Has a Gun sells minority stake to Cathay Capital

Juliette Has a Gun, the French selective perfumery brand founded in 2006 by Romano Ricci, great-grandson of legendary Parisian couturier Nina Ricci, has sold a minority stake to investment fund Cathay Capital. The objective was to tap the support of a shareholder to accelerate the brand’s international expansion, especially in China.

For the last 15 years, Juliette Has a Gun has brought to the market its modern take on selective perfumery. With fragrance lines like ‘Not a perfume’, featuring scents, shower gels and home fragrances, the brand is currently distributed in 42 countries via over 4,000 retailers. Juliette Has a Gun also operates a flagship store in Paris, chiefly for brand image purposes, since France only accounts for a very thin slice of Juliette Has a Gun's revenue (5% in 2017).

Thanks to Cathay Capital, the brand now wants to accelerate the rate of its global expansion, especially in China, where the fragrance market is forecast to be worth CHY12 billion in 2023 (€1.5 billion), and the high-end perfume segment is predicted to increase by 18% this year.

Two years ago, Juliette Has a Gun began to collaborate with brand accelerator Ushopal (a company that is part of Cathay Capital's portfolio), which specialises in omni-channel strategies in China. On the latest Singles’ Day in China, on November 11 2020, Juliette Has a Gun was one of the top three brands on Tmall in terms of sales in the high-end perfumery category. “In only an hour, we sold 10,000 Juliette Has a Gun fragrances,” stated the brand, which has been featured on Tmall since September 2020.

“As one of the last independent fragrance houses, it's essential for us to adopt an omni-channel marketing strategy in order to offer the service and personalised experience sought by Millennials and the younger generations of consumers. Cathay Capital is the ideal partner to bolster our growth, support our vision and help us seize strategic opportunities in Asia and around the world,” said in a press release designer Romano Ricci, who is also the co-founder of Nose, a perfumery store and fragrance e-shop.

Juliette Has a Gun’s revenue is reportedly on the up, and in 2018 it reached the value of approximately €50 million.

Juliette Has a Gun sells minority stake to Cathay Capital

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