FLORENCE — Exhibitors at Pitti Fragranze, the three-day beauty fair dedicated to niche brands that closed on Sunday, drew a positive picture for the future, but saw the need of education overseas.
Pitti Immagine’s 13th edition of the event, which ran from Sept. 11 to 13, hosted more than 270 brands in Florence’s old train station Stazione Leopolda. International buyer attendance figures indicated a strong retail interest in the niche sector, which increased 20 percent to 650 compared to 2014. Overall the fair attracted 3,750 visitors, a 12 percent increase from the previous edition in 2014.
Many of the exhibitors, executives and designers that attended the fair, credited a growing demand for niche fragrances and opportunities overseas.
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“When you consider the first edition of Fragranze in 2003 that I did, we were eight distributors for 60 brands and now here we are 24 distributors for 220 brands,” said Roberto Drago, president of Kaon, who added that in some years there might be a new fair for niche and Pitti Fragranze will be the commercial fair.
Kaon is the Italian distributor for Jul et Mad and 19 other selective beauty brands, including Laboratorio Olfattivo, the company’s own fragrance brand, which is now present in 30 countries. “We are growing. New countries are demanding the brand,” Drago said and added that the brand itself is expected to grow 20 to 25 percent and Kaon will reach 15 percent compared to 2014.
He noted that the most similar market to Italy was Germany, and France was growing slowly, but still sees opportunities overseas. “One market that could grow a lot in my opinion is the U.S. market. I think it has a big opportunity to grow a lot,” Drago said.
Silvio Levi, president of Milan based firm Calé Srl, noted that the Italian market was more mature, Germany and the Netherlands were performing well, but also sees the U.S. underdeveloped. “Unfortunately the U.S. is very poor. It has no network and you have to work with department stores,” Levi said and added that from a communication point of view, the customers don’t understand the difference between a niche and mass-market fragrance. “There is a huge work of education,” he said.
Levi’s distribution company will launch a new version of Clive Christian’s No 1 fragrance from 2001, which is limited to a few points of sales.
The need for education was also expressed from Franco Wright, cofounder of Los Angeles based Lucky Scent. “We still have a lot of people in the middle of America, who don’t shop niche and have a department store mentality,” he said and explained that sampling is a big part of the business. “I want to say we started doing 10,000 samples a month and now we are doing about 80,000 a month,” Wright said.
Celso Fadelli, chief executive officer of Intertrade Europe, noted that the company was doing very well in the U.S., Middle East and Germany but was not too happy with Italy. “Italy is stagnant. The Italians are very conscious of spending money at the moment,” he said. “There was for many years a population that spent based on emotions, but now it’s a different time,” he added. Fadelli believes his company has the chance of a total turnover of 15 million euros, or $16.9 million at current exchange, of which 50 percent will be covered from the Italian and German market.
The firm also just established Intertrade Africa as a subsidiary company, based in Casablanca. “We are very happy to penetrate the north of Africa and I think South Africa will be the next market,” said Fadelli and added that the company will open a new Avery Perfume Gallery in Casablanca before the end of the year. For the future, he puts his focus on Asia. “I don’t know about China for the moment, but I think Asia will be the next step for us,” he said.
At Fragranze, the firm was present with 22 brands, including Swedish skin-care line Verso and Blood Concept’s creative duo Antonio Zuddas and Giovanni Castello, who inked a new manufacturing license with Intertrade.
“We did a total rebranding of the packaging and in the communications,” said Zuddas, who added that the duo in the beginning of their career wanted to shock, but now wants to convince with the real product and very high quality. “With Intertrade we had the possibility to really express what we are. We are very happy because we share the same language,” he said. The new range of 10 fragrances is contained in matte-black flacons, differentiated by the colors red, grey and blue to distinguish between the Red, Black and Upside Down series.
Also at Pitti Fragranze was Manhattan-based men’s apothecary MiN New York with the second volume of their Scent Stories, slated to hit U.S. stores in November and London’s Harvey Nichols in time for holidays, retailing for $240 per bottle.
“Volume 1 has been incredible. We are giving retailers three bottles,” said creator Mindy Yang about the success of the first edition, of which only one batch per year with 1,000 bottles is produced. “Depending on how Volume 2 goes, we may increase Volume 1, but we will never go above 2,500,” said Yang, who adds that the used raw materials are not available in large quantities anyway.
Five chapters comprise the second volume of the Scent Stories, meant to be worn alone or to be layered. “It becomes a more unique experience, you almost tailor it to your moment,” Yang explained and added that she wants to urge the industry to make more interesting, unusual fragrances. “Something that is just more than a perfume, because I think the consumers are looking for that too,” she said.
Exhibiting at the show for the first time was Florence-based candle manufacturer Migone, which has been specialized in private-label production for luxury brands including Gucci. The company presented five scented candles in 180- and 700-gram versions, which are slated for November and will retail for 50 euros and 175 euros, or $56 and $198 respectively, at current exchange.
Pitti Fragranze