PARIS – Ben Gorham is parting ways this month with Byredo, the Swedish luxury beauty and lifestyle brand he founded in 2006, which is now owned by Puig.
Terms of their strategic partnership were outlined in an agreement signed by both parties in 2022, part of which said that Gorham would maintain creative leadership until this June, according to the Spanish beauty and fashion company.
Concurrent with Puig’s initial public offering in 2024, the company acquired 100 percent of Byredo. Puig said its goal was to unlock the brand’s potential across numerous product categories, reinforcing Puig’s position in high-end fragrances and beauty, among other product segments.
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“Puig’s experience in beauty and fashion will be instrumental in the brand’s future growth and will help Byredo unlock its potential across multiple categories,” Gorham said.
“I am proud of what we were able to achieve over a 20-year journey and am confident in a bright future for Byredo,” he continued. “The brand has a strong identity that I now fully entrust with Puig as I look to embrace new opportunities.”
Marc Puig, chairman and chief executive officer of Puig, said: “It’s been a great privilege to collaborate with such a high-caliber founder, and we are proud of the partnership we’ve had with Ben Gorham over the past three years.
“At Puig, we have a strong track record of inheriting the legacy of a brand’s founder and, while remaining very respectful of its roots and raison d’être, nurturing and fostering its next chapter of growth,” Puig said. “Ben did a remarkable job in creating a unique and special proposition with Byredo, and we will work hard to protect its identity while unlocking its tremendous potential for the future.”
On May 31, 2022, it was announced that Puig had acquired a majority stake in Byredo from Manzanita Capital. At the time Byredo had a reported valuation of more than 1 billion euros.
Byredo slotted well into Puig, as both place a high premium on the role of design in luxury goods. Puig also seamlessly straddles the worlds of fashion and beauty with its brands.
From the beginning, Gorham, a native Swede born to an Indian mother and Canadian father, was determined to create a different kind of luxury brand. It was one that reflected his ethos as someone who didn’t relate to the rarified world of traditional high-end houses, but with a finger firmly on the pulse of cutting-edge culture.
Gorham’s vision resonated, and Byredo jolted the world of perfumes to become a multicategory powerhouse that takes risks, whether venturing into luxury accessories or partnering with Ikea on a line of home fragrances.
Gorham initially launched fragrance, the keystone to his brand, only after a chance meeting with a perfumer. Prior to that, he seriously pursued a basketball career in Canada. Then Gorham returned to Europe and in the years following earned a degree in fine arts, which led him to the life-changing encounter.
“I became very fascinated by this idea that smell is essentially an invisible medium that evokes so much emotion,” Gorham said in May 2022, during a WWD Beauty CEO Summit. “It is so evocative.”
So he founded a creative project, called Byredo, a name short for “by redolence,” Old English for “sweet-smelling perfume” and reminiscent of redolence or redolent. Storytelling and collaborations were integrated into the brand from the get-go. Gorham has partnered with the likes of Travis Scott and graphic design agency M/M, too.
Puig is also a master of storytelling and collaborations, therefore well-placed to continue the brand in the spirit of its founder.
Byredo currently counts 37 fragrances, all made with perfumer Jérôme Épinette, including 31 eaux de toilette and six extraits de parfum. Some of its most iconic perfumes include Gypsy Water and Mojave Ghost.
When rapper, producer and fashion idol Scott teamed with Gorham in November 2020 for a limited-edition fragrance and candle collection, called Space Rage (meant to literally smell like space), it sold out in three hours.
Byredo burst onto the makeup scene in October 2020 with a collection Gorham created in collaboration with makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench. It has unconventional hues evocative of emotions, clean formulas, plus packaging, product selection and imagery that broke the mold. In 2022, makeup artist Lucia Pica began collaborating on the line.
Gorham and his brand have long been a magnet for celebrities. At a cocktail and dinner event at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris in 2024, to celebrate Mojave Ghost perfume’s 10th birthday, for instance, Cher, Serena Williams and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley were among the dozens of guests sipping cocktails.
Byredo today boasts 76 freestanding stores, including a Paris flagship on the tony Rue Saint-Honoré.
The brand entered the fine jewelry space as a permanent product category in late 2023, starting with 18-karat gold and sterling-silver pieces. The collection was called Virasaat, the Hindi word for “inheritance,” nodding to Gorham’s Indian heritage.
In addition to its fragrance, home fragrance, color cosmetics and jewelry, Byredo also markets leather goods, jewelry, eyewear and sleepwear.
Puig’s portfolio of brands includes, as well, owned brands Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, Charlotte Tilbury, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, Dries Van Noten, Penhaligon’s, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Uriage, Apivita, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Kama Ayurveda and Loto del Sur, as well as the beauty licenses of Christian Louboutin, Banderas and Adolfo Dominguez.