Puig celebrates 100 years with the inauguration of Puig Tower, the company’s new corporate headquarters. The fashion and fragrance firm with headquarters in Barcelona was founded by Antonio Puig Castelló in 1914 and is celebrating 100 years in business.
Puig Tower, the new corporate headquarters
To celebrate the first 100 years of its corporate history, Puig has inaugurated Puig Tower, designed by world-renowned Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, winner of the Pritzker Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, and GCA Arquitectos. The company’s new 100-meter-high headquarters, located in the Plaza Europa of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, occupies 15,000 square meters distributed over 23 floors. Puig Tower has received LEED Gold certification, and is one of a select group of nine buildings in Spain to have qualified for this distinction.
Puig celebrates 100 years – Results 2013
Puig reports net revenues of €1,499 million in 2013. The company’s pre-tax profit was €248 million,
and its net income was €176 million.
Sales in 2013 were up by 5% on a like-for-like basis and reported growth was 1%. The discrepancy
between these figures is due to the company’s broad exposure in emerging markets where local
currencies fell against the euro, and to the strength of the euro against the US dollar.
Employees and facilities
At end 2013, Puig had 4,204 employees, 40% of whom worked in Spain.
The company’s three production facilities in Spain manufacture 67% of Puig products sold around the world; its factory in Chartres, France is responsible for another 31%.
Puig presently has subsidiaries in 21 countries and sells its products in more than 140 countries around the world.
2004 – 2013: ten years of continued growth
Since its founding in 1914 as a local cosmetics distributor, Puig has gone on to become a multinational corporation whose products are distributed in more than 140 countries. Over the last decade, sales have grown by 7% per annum. During this period, net revenue has risen from €790 million to €1,499 million. Pre-tax profits have soared from €4 million in 2004 to €248 million in 2013; and the company’s net income from €1 million to €176 million.
In the same ten years, international sales have grown from representing 51% of total turnover in 2004 to 86% of total turnover in 2013. Puig has expanded its share of the international select perfumery market from 3.4% in 2005 to 8.6% in 2013.
Growth of International Market Share in Selective Perfumery
This period has been marked by spectacular product launches. Fragrances such as Carolina Herrera’s CH and 212 lines, Nina by Nina Ricci, and Paco Rabanne’s Black XS, 1 Million, and Invictus have made it possible for Puig to position itself among the world’s top six companies specializing in selective perfumery. Over the last decade, Puig has also signed licensing agreements with names such as Prada, Valentino and Comme des Garçons. The most recent agreement, with Benetton, was concluded in 2013.
On the fashion front, Puig continued to consolidate its model for building luxury brands in 2013.
Puig entered the world of fashion in 1987 with Paco Rabanne, a brand for which it had created the legendary fragrance Calandre in 1969. The company formed an alliance with Carolina Herrera in 1995 and another with Nina Ricci in 1998. Puig became majority shareholder of the fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier in 2011, a move that consolidated its position in the luxury sector.
These strategies have enabled Puig to develop a hybrid model unique in its sector. Puig shapes the images of its brands through fashion, then translates them successfully into the world of perfumery.
The company’s solid growth over the last ten years has been praised by the prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS), which has published a case study detailing the firm’s history, its successful business strategies and its perspectives for the future.
Puig celebrates 100 years – Outlook
Puig has launched a new corporate website to mark its 100th Anniversary: (www.puig.com).
With a market share of 8.6%, the company is currently the sixth-ranked player in the international selective perfumery sector. It hopes to raise its share to 12% and occupy the number-three spot in this market by 2020.