NEW YORK — Alora Ambiance, a home fragrance company founded by Minnesotan sisters Annie and Therese Gibbons, is launching its eighth fragrance, Caldo, in August.
Annie Gibbons, who oversees product development and fragrances, said, “I wanted to do something that was a little bit edgy and sexy, kind of a bold fragrance. It’s very masculine and sophisticated.”
Caldo, translating to “hot” in Italian, is a blend of patchouli, amber and sandalwood. The fragrance will “add depth to our line,” said Annie Gibbons.
The Gibbons sisters started their company in January 2000 while living together in Lake Como, Italy. “We found a similar product there,” said Annie Gibbons, referring to the room fragrance she and her sister found in a local shop.
The company’s signature reed diffusers, a grouping of reed sticks that releases a fragrance when submerged into the bottled liquid of alcohol and essential oils, developed from their find.
The sisters returned to their family farm in Minnesota to develop their company. They started assembling everything in August and by October, they were selling.
Today, Alora Ambiance has a sales projection of $3 million for 2005 and $4 million for 2006, she said.
Although the sisters now live in different parts of the country, Therese in Minneapolis and Annie in Honolulu, they continue to run the company as a partnership. Therese manages the business side of the company at Alora Ambiance’s headquarters and Annie continues to develop new fragrances.
“We originally had planned to have our product in lifestyle-type stores, but the apothecary and spa part of our business is huge,” Annie Gibbons said.
The diffusers are sold in two sizes — a 16-oz. bottle that retails for $76 and Alora to Go, a 2-oz. bottle that retails for $45. She added that the 2-oz. bottle was developed partially because customers started using the product as a perfume.
“Our product is a perfume, containing 20 percent alcohol,” she said, adding that, while it can be used as a perfume, Alora Ambiance chooses to market itself as a home fragrance company.
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Annie and Therese Gibbons also responded to their customers’ requests for a candle line in their signature fragrances by launching a soy candle collection last year.
“The candles are great because they add a certain level of ambience to the line,” Annie Gibbons said. Candles retail for $45 each.
In September, Alora Ambiance will be launching a candlewick trimmer, a stainless steel candle scissor made in Switzerland by Outlis Rubis, a manufacturing company that has its roots in the Swiss watch industry. The wick trimmer will retail for $80.
In January 2006, the company also will launch a limited-edition Valentine’s Day fragrance with Hermès. The labeling for the new rose-scented fragrance will be designed with Hermès artwork.
Alora Ambiance diffusers and candles are available at Henri Bendel, other specialty shops scattered throughout the country and abroad and on the company’s Web site.