Ocado has sold its ‘Fabled by Marie Claire’ beauty brand to fashion retailer Next as it looks to focus on its upcoming food tie-up with Marks & Spencer.
In a deal which will be worth about £8m, Next has acquired the online grocer’s Marie Claire Beauty Limited subsidiary, which operates the Fabled.com website and a Fabled By Marie Claire beauty store in central London.
Fabled was launched as a joint project between fashion magazine Marie Claire and Ocado in August 2016 and has built a reputation as a content-led premium beauty retailer offering over 250 brands. It was revealed that Next and Fabled have been collaborating in recent months, and as a result Next had decided to acquire the business.
Simon Wolfson, Next’s Chief Executive said: “Fabled have developed an extensive range of premium beauty brands, an online business and a retail presence. Fabled’s experience and expertise bring an opportunity for the Next Group to develop an extensive premium beauty business supported by our online and retail platform”.
Next currently sells over 100 beauty brands on its website through Fabled, including Estee Lauder, Clinique, Benefit, GHD, Burberry, L’Occitane, and Boss, with more brands being introduced this year.
Amanda Scott, MD of Fabled by Marie Claire, commented: “We now have an exciting opportunity to combine complementary capabilities with Next which will enable us to accelerate our plans for developing and extending the range, services and channel offer”.
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado, added: “The recent JV with M&S has meant that the centre of gravity at Ocado Group has shifted. In the light of our strategic evolution, and given the success of the collaboration between Next and Fabled, we decided that it would be in the best interests of all parties to now pass the baton so that Next can take Fabled forward”.
