Puig remains on track despite "difficult" year

Despite a "complicated" year due to the decline of currencies in emerging markets, which Puig invested in during the first half, the company hopes to maintain stable results as compared with last year, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.

That’s what Marc Puig, CEO of the Spanish fashion and perfumes group (Nina Ricci, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera…), said during celebrations of Puig's centenary at the IESE business school. 

The executive also stressed that the opening of the group’s subsidiary in Saudi Arabia in January would go forward. As regards potential acquisitions, he explained that "there are no immediate plans."

Last year, the group - which has 4,200 employees and operations in 140 countries - generated 176 million euros in profits and a turnover of 1.49 billion euros. Puig is thus on track to reach its goal of becoming the world’s third largest selective perfumery group by 2020 with a 12% market share. 

Pedro Nueno, professor at IESE, for his part, presented a paper titled "Puig: the second century". The case study gives Puig four possible avenues for development: maintaining the current model by combining organic growth with acquisitions, strengthening its presence in the beauty industry by adding makeup and beauty care to perfumes, strengthening its presence in the fashion industry, or, finally focusing on perfumes while expanding in emerging markets such as the Middle East, China and Latin America. 

For Marc Puig, "none of these avenues should be avoided, but certain are better than for others"...