A brand aside: The enduring spouse and children organization legacy of Mariano Puig Planas

Puig headquarters, Barcelona, 1990, 9:12pm, a youthful inexperienced products supervisor was seeking at possible packaging designs for a new Puig fragrance. He experienced to decide at the very least two finalists for a conference with his boss the subsequent day.

All of a sudden, Mariano Puig Planas (pictured left) appeared at the door to his little business and calmly questioned him what was keeping him so fast paced this late in the night. With a mixture of nerves and surprise, the younger staff instructed him what he was carrying out and added that it was unconventional to see him on this floor. Mariano looked at the selections on the table and, in a friendly but firm tone, reported: “Choose the selection that builds the manufacturer much more solidly. The brand name is the critical.”

Mariano stated goodbye and reassured the staff he would see points all significantly clearer in the early morning.

Following-gen ambition

In 1950, Mariano Puig Planas joined the loved ones perfume organization launched by his father in Barcelona in 1914. Ideal from the begin, manufacturer building was the maxim that drove him, as properly as internationalisation. A single demonstration of this was winning the deal to be the distributor for Max Issue, followed by other wonderful manufacturers this sort of as Chanel.

At the finish of 1968, he hired Paco Rabanne (pictured down below), an unknown innovative Spanish manner designer who was getting focus for his original creations made from smaller steel plates. In 1973, they launched Paco Rabanne Pour Homme, which grew to become a major manufacturer in their crucial markets for pretty much two many years, acting as a retail model, like Nina Ricci, to ensure that the Puig umbrella brand name was not restrictive as they were developing the manufacturer.

Mariano’s last milestone prior to the generational handover of the business was the discovery of Carolina Herrera, a proficient Venezuelan designer centered in New York with a fledgling trend brand that experienced started working pretty much by chance, but in which he noticed fantastic probable.

A enthusiasm for fashion

Paco Rabanne and Carolina Herrera are two brands designed from scratch, with a crystal clear strategic eyesight that connects fashion, luxury and fragrance, with the intercontinental profile that he aspires to attain for the company’s models: with the makes generally at the forefront, building creative imagination, innovation and style, without having ever getting rid of sight of financial viability and with their toes firmly grounded in the industry.

The present-day brand name framework of the Puig Group has developed, underpinned by the sound strategic pillars founded by the second era of Puig brothers: Antonio, Mariano and Enrique. They every introduced a diverse, complementary part to the leadership of the firm, but shared a prevalent eyesight: constructing luxurious and global fragrance and fashion brands.

At the close of the 1990s, they ongoing making or incorporating brand names these kinds of as Nina Ricci,  which the organization distributed for two decades ahead of it grew to become the residence of the group, with the crystal clear mission of acquiring the greatest freedom and duty to generate the model for the lengthy time period. If we glance at the profile of the manufacturers that they incorporated, a obvious pattern emerges: style, luxurious, worldwide, identity, values of identification and the opportunity to continue producing.

The handover to the 3rd era transpired in 2007, with Mariano’s son Marc Puig Guasch having above as president, and his nephew, Antonio’s son Manuel Puig Rocha, as the vice-president. Their complementary government capabilities were, to a particular extent, very similar to the roles held by their respective fathers, combining Marc’s organisational management with Manuel’s conceptual and resourceful vision.

From the store ground

The cousins had worked at the organization because 1995 and 1987, respectively, with various prime-stage operational and professional obligations, both obtaining began out as salesmen to acquire authentic an knowing of the truth of the sector and insight into how the makes and the organization were perceived in the sector. Without having a doubt, this unbeatable schooling is a distinctive feature of Puig as a unique household business.

The team tirelessly ongoing setting up brands. In 1 astonishing and daring go, they took command of the Jean Paul Gaultier (pictured proper) brand name in 2012. At that point, the model had been a world wide chief for the previous decade and it was beginning to exhibit signals of exhaustion. In 3 many years of Puig taking full command of the model, they experienced embraced the reconstruction of the manufacturer with creativeness and passion and launched Scandal, which acted as a catalyst driving the new dynamism of the brand, reaffirming its position among the top 10 in the planet.

Another unexpected incorporation was Penhaligon’s, one particular of the most legendary manufacturers in the heritage of perfumes. Creating on its one of a kind legacy, Puig masterminded a complete overhaul of the items and revitalised the playing industry, showcasing it at the place of sale, pre-empting the luxury fragrance trend for signature perfumes.

Trustworthy advisers

In the course of this process, the govt staff that guidance the Puig spouse and children has been a essential characteristic that evidently sets the group aside in the sector. The degree of motivation, complementary profile and steadiness of the board of directors is another of the company’s defining features and critical success elements. The most senior five executives have been doing work for the group for additional than 20 years. Also, the internationalisation and multicultural policy of the company’s administrators and executives has a clear affect on the solutions and their positioning in the sector.

From the founder, Antonio Puig Castello (pictured left), all the way via to the hottest era, they have all commenced off in profits, an vital teaching floor for getting insight into the correct fact of the sector. This connection to the stage of sale, the salespeople, the shoppers and the distribution channels is a constant attribute that is crucial for making makes.

Of system, the excellent of the fragrance, structure, components, distribution, conversation and so on are all critical, as well as differentiation and creativity, but how the manufacturer is expressed on the sector and how the stop purchaser perceives it is the ‘last mile’ that demands the finest attention to element. The amount of creativeness and innovation applied to the points of sale is astonishing, as we can see in airports and division merchants all above the earth. The total system of strengthening your posture in the globe of fragrances, put together with style in a excellent symbiosis, is epitomised in Puig’s Attractiveness and Fashion division, which is why it ranks between the best five major decide on fragrance teams in the environment.

Determination to expansion

In 2020, Covid-19 arrived and the luxurious fragrance sector was a person of the most difficult hit due to its exposure to vacation retail and its highest dependence on the European current market, which has faced the strictest lockdowns and commercial limits. On the other hand, the strategic roadmap was now created and the new levers for progress involved strengthening the other two segments of the cosmetics sector: individual treatment and makeup.

The team has designed the Skincare division with its brands Uriage, Apivita and Isdin. However, in the most amazing move at the most unsure, sophisticated time of the pandemic, in June 2020, the group took manage of Charlotte Tilbury, a very clear determination to expansion in the make-up sector, producing a particular division for this brand name. This was the biggest corporate procedure that Puig experienced carried out in its history, which is a crystal clear demonstration of how courage and a bold entrepreneurial mindset are the hallmarks of this successful loved ones firm.

The new, intriguing challenges on the horizon for Puig, for which of system they established higher expectations, involve embracing the enthusiasm for respiratory daily life into fashion, building magical solutions and encounters, with endless creative imagination and innovation, and an entrepreneurial spirit dedicated to guaranteeing the prolonged-term accomplishment of a actually exemplary relatives enterprise.

Sadly, Mariano Puig died in April 2021, leaving at the rear of a wonderful organization legacy and a lasting impact on anyone blessed plenty of to have met him, just like the younger product manager who invested hrs scratching his head trying to have an understanding of what Mariano meant by “build the brand”, when he was just thinking about a style and design.

Having said that, following seven decades doing the job at Puig and later witnessing the exponential expansion of the corporation, the writer of this report figured out the very important lesson that Mariano gave me that evening in Barcelona 31 several years back.