Can an own-label cosmetic brand conquer the world?
Boots’ – currently being sold by parent company Walgreen Boots Alliance – many suitors seem to think so.
According to Sky, “Apollo Global Management, the New York-based buyout giant, is lining up banks to fund a £6bn tilt to buy Boots.”
Other interested PE firms are British private equity firm TDR, backers of the billionaire Issa brothers, who own Asda, and US retail specialists Sycamore Partners.
Boots has some historic trading challenges. As This Is Money points out, the retailer has been “up against competition from online operators such as Amazon, and supermarkets.”
So, why are so many major PE names lining up to acquire the company?
The answer might just be the untapped global potential of its own brands. With L’Oréal, the world’s biggest cosmetic company, reporting annual sales of $33.93bn (2020), a tried and tested UK brand like No7, fuelled by global PE investment, has a huge market to tilt at.
Given time and the right strategy, No7 really could become bigger than Boots.
Extract from Human Capital – Drayton’s business magazine