Who owns perfume brands in 2026: 89 houses mapped to their groups, licences and revenue lines

Both dates come from the groups' own press releases, read by 10ML on 8 October 2026. The map covers every house in the 10ML Price-per-ml Index on that day and is part of 10ML's perfume market and prices research. The cards below show the revenue lines four groups publish, each with its own scope.

The short map: five groups make the perfumes of nearly two in five houses

Of the 89 perfume houses 10ML sells, L'Oréal makes the fragrances of 11 (4 owned, 7 under licence), LVMH 7, Coty 7, the Estée Lauder Companies 5 and Puig 5, according to 10ML's October 2026 ownership check. These are counts of the houses 10ML sells, not of the whole industry.

The answer changes with the question you ask. Counted by control alone, LVMH leads. It owns or holds a majority in 7 of the 89 houses. The Estée Lauder Companies and Puig control 5 each, and L'Oréal controls 4.

Counted by who makes the perfume, L'Oréal leads. Its 7 fragrance licences sit on top of the 4 houses it owns. Coty owns only one house on the list, through the Escada beauty trademark, and makes the rest of its 7 under licence.

Behind the five, the list thins out quickly. EuroItalia and Shiseido make the fragrances of 3 houses each. Interparfums, Nichebox and Advent International account for 2 each. Every other company on the list makes the fragrance of a single house.

Across all 89 rows, 30 houses are owned by a group that makes the fragrance itself. 19 are fragrance licences. 4 have an outside majority owner and 7 a known minority investor. 21 are independent, and 8 could not be verified.

Every row in the dataset names its source and its check date, so each line can be cited on its own.

Owner or licensee: who actually makes the perfume

Many fashion houses own their name but license the perfume: Prada, Armani, Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent fragrances are made by L'Oréal, while Burberry, Hugo Boss, Chloé and Calvin Klein are made by Coty. The brand on the bottle and the company that makes what is inside are often two different groups.

Yves Saint Laurent is the clearest case. Kering keeps the Yves Saint Laurent trademark, according to a Kering release from the time of the deal. L'Oréal owns YSL Beauté, which makes perfumes such as Libre. Ask who owns Libre and both groups are part of a true answer.

L'Oréal's other licences follow the same pattern. The Armani Group licenses its fragrance to L'Oréal, according to a L'Oréal press release on the licence. The Prada Group does the same, according to L'Oréal's 2025 Universal Registration Document. Ralph Lauren's 10-K, filed in May 2026, names L'Oréal as its fragrance licensee. Margiela and Viktor & Rolf belong to OTB and are made by L'Oréal. Valentino belongs to Mayhoola, and L'Oréal makes its perfume.

Coty's side of the list rests on its 10-K for fiscal 2026, filed in August 2026. That brand list marks owned brands with an asterisk, and Burberry, Hugo Boss, Chloé, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs appear without one. Chloé belongs to Richemont. Calvin Klein belongs to PVH, whose 2026 SEC filing confirms the licence.

The smaller licensees matter too. Interparfums makes the Montblanc perfumes for Richemont according to its 10-K for 2025, and the Salvatore Ferragamo perfumes for Ferragamo under a licence that began in October 2021. Shiseido makes Issey Miyake and Narciso Rodriguez. The Narciso Rodriguez rights sit in a joint venture whose current terms 10ML could not verify. EuroItalia makes Versace under a licence that continued after the Prada Group bought Versace.

Licences are a large part of how these groups trade. 37%⁷⁶ of Coty's sales in the fiscal year to 30 June 2025 came from products under exclusive licence agreements, according to Coty 10-K fiscal 2025 (SEC)⁷⁶. Interparfums paid royalties to brand owners worth 8.2%⁵⁴ of its net sales in 2025, according to Interparfums 10-K 2025 (SEC)⁵⁴. Royalties are one of the costs traced in where the money in a bottle of perfume goes.

So which group owns a licensed perfume? 10ML records the trademark owner as the parent and credits the perfume to the licensee, because the licensee is the company that makes and sells it.

The deals that redrew the map in 2025 and 2026

L'Oréal completed its purchase of Kering Beauté, including Creed, on 31 March 2026¹, and Coty agreed to hand the Gucci licence back early, operating it until at least 30 June 2027⁷⁷. Together they bring two well-known houses to L'Oréal: Creed now, and Gucci's perfume once Coty's licence ends.

The Creed date comes from L'Oréal completes the acquisition of Kering Beauté¹. The deal brought the House of Creed, maker of Aventus, into L'Oréal alongside Azzaro, Lancôme and Mugler. For the rest of the range, see the Creed perfumes beyond Aventus, grouped by style.

The Gucci change is set out in Coty fiscal 2026 results (SEC exhibit 99.1)⁷⁷. Coty agreed in July 2026 to end the licence roughly a year ahead of its original term. Kering may extend the date. Coty's 8-K of July 2026 does not name the next licensee. L'Oréal's release on completing the Kering Beauté deal gives it the right to take over the Gucci fragrance licence once Coty's licence ends.

Older deals still shape the list. The Estée Lauder Companies completed its purchase of the Tom Ford brand on 28 April 2023², according to Estée Lauder Companies completes acquisition of the TOM FORD brand². That made the group sole owner of the brand behind Oud Wood, covered in which Tom Ford perfume to try first. The same group bought Le Labo in 2014, Frédéric Malle in 2015 and By Kilian in 2016, according to its 10-K for fiscal 2025.

Puig bought Penhaligon's in 2015 and Byredo, the house behind Gypsy Water, in 2022. Both appear in Puig's Integrated Annual Report 2025. Trade press reports that Puig took full ownership of Byredo in 2024.

The smaller moves since mid-2024:

• June 2024: Kering took a minority stake in Matière Première.
• February 2025: L'Oréal took a minority stake in Amouage.
• September 2025: a Mada / Atlas Growth Capital fund took a minority stake in Nishane.
• 2 December 2025: the Prada Group completed its purchase of Versace.
• December 2025: LVMH Luxury Ventures took a minority stake in BDK Parfums.
• February 2026: L Catterton took a stake in Ex Nihilo, announced by Eurazeo.
• July 2026: Style Capital took a minority stake in Essential Parfums.
• September 2026: LVMH sold Marc Jacobs to a WHP Global and G-III joint venture.
• 18 September 2026: Extravaganza Beauty bought the Roja house, which now trades as Roja London.

One more change is pending. Advent International has hired banks to sell Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Privés, but 10ML found no completed sale by 8 October 2026.

Group by group: houses and fragrance revenue

The revenue each group reports is not fragrance-only in most cases: LVMH's Perfumes & Cosmetics took €8.17B⁴ in 2025 including make-up and skincare, while the Estée Lauder Companies reports a fragrance line of its own, US$2.78B⁶ in fiscal 2026. Each line below is quoted with the scope its owner gives it.

L'Oréal owns 4 of the 89 houses and holds 7 of their fragrance licences. Its Luxe division sold €15.6B³ in 2025, according to L'Oréal 2025 annual results³. Like-for-like growth was +2.8%³ in the same year. That division also sells make-up and skincare.

LVMH owns or controls 7 houses: Acqua di Parma, Bvlgari, Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain, Louis Vuitton and, through a majority stake, the Francis Kurkdjian house. Its Perfumes & Cosmetics group took €3.91B⁸⁰ in the first half of 2026, according to LVMH 2026 first-half results⁸⁰. Bvlgari's perfume sits inside the Bvlgari business in LVMH's Watches & Jewelry group, according to LVMH's Bvlgari page, and Louis Vuitton makes its fragrance in-house.

Coty makes 7 of the 89 houses' perfumes. Its Prestige segment took US$3.81B⁷⁷ in the fiscal year to 30 June 2026, according to Coty fiscal 2026 results (SEC exhibit 99.1)⁷⁷. That was 66%⁷⁷ of Coty's total sales. Prestige is mostly, but not only, fragrance.

The Estée Lauder Companies owns 5 houses: By Kilian, Frédéric Malle, Jo Malone London, Le Labo and Tom Ford. Its fragrance net sales reached US$2.78B⁶ in the fiscal year to 30 June 2026, according to Estée Lauder Companies fiscal 2026 results (SEC exhibit 99.1)⁶. That was a change of +12%⁶ on the year before. It is the one fragrance-only line in this table.

Puig owns 5 houses: Byredo, Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, Penhaligon's and Rabanne. Its net revenue was €5.04B⁵ in 2025, according to Puig FY 2025 results press release⁵. Fragrance and Fashion made up 72%⁵ of it, €3.65B⁵.

Interparfums owns none of the 89 houses but makes 2 under licence. Its net sales were US$1.49B⁷⁸ in 2025, according to Interparfums 2025 results (SEC exhibit 99.1)⁷⁸.

Hermès runs its own Perfume and Beauty business. That business took €489M⁷⁹ in 2025, according to Hermès 2025 full-year results⁷⁹.

These lines measure different things and close on different dates, so 10ML does not add them up or rank them as fragrance revenue. No revenue figure is published for Xerjoff, Parfums de Marly or Acqua di Parma on their own in the primary sources used here. Audited accounts filed per house would answer that question. For what these houses charge, see niche perfume price per ml against designer.

Funds and minority stakes in niche houses

Investment funds now hold stakes in several niche houses: Advent International holds majority stakes in Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Privés, and seven of the 89 houses have a known minority investor. The sizes of most of those stakes are not public.

Advent International announced both majority stakes on 22 June 2023, in its own press release. That makes Layton a fund-held perfume today. Advent has hired banks to sell the group, but no completed sale had been reported when 10ML checked. The other two majority stakes in the map are LVMH's in Maison Francis Kurkdjian and Creative Perfume Company's in Vilhelm Parfumerie; the newest source found for the Vilhelm stake is several years old.

The 7 houses with a known minority investor:

• Amouage, with L'Oréal holding a minority stake and SABCO of Oman the majority owner.
• BDK Parfums, with LVMH Luxury Ventures; the founder keeps control.
• Essential Parfums, with Style Capital.
• Ex Nihilo, with L Catterton.
• Crivelli, the house of Thibaud Crivelli, with Extravaganza Beauty; the founder keeps most of the shares.
• Matière Première, with Kering; the co-founders set strategy on their own.
• Nishane, with a Mada / Atlas Growth Capital fund; the co-founders keep the majority and board control.

Ex Nihilo shows how loosely these deals are described. Eurazeo's newsroom announced the L Catterton deal, Business of Fashion calls it a large minority stake, and an adviser calls it a secondary buyout. 10ML records it as a minority stake, the reading two of the three sources share.

Other holders appear in the data too. Manzanita Capital owns Diptyque. Nichebox owns Clive Christian and Liquides Imaginaires. Kayali is jointly owned by its founder and General Atlantic, but the split is not disclosed, so 10ML lists it as unverified.

Extravaganza Beauty is the newest name. A September 2026 Premium Beauty News report says it holds stakes in Amouage, Ex Nihilo, Nishane, the Crivelli house and Marc-Antoine Barrois. For Marc-Antoine Barrois, an August 2026 interview says there is no investor behind the house. 10ML marks that house unverified rather than choose between the two.

The independent houses

21 of the 89 houses showed no group or fund owner in the sources read, among them Xerjoff, Mancera, Montale and Memo Paris; 8 more could not be verified. Independent here is a finding from the sources, not a guarantee.

The 21 independent houses are Boadicea the Victorious, Comme des Garçons, Escentric Molecules, Giardini di Toscana, Giardino Benessere, Goldfield & Banks, Jul et Mad Paris, the Zurich house Noir, Mancera, Memo Paris, Montale, Nasomatto, Orto Parisi, Pantheon Roma, Profumum Roma, SHIR, Sora Dora, Stéphane Humbert Lucas, Tiziana Terenzi, WIDIAN and Xerjoff.

Xerjoff shows no group or fund owner; Forbes Italia reported in 2019 that an individual held a minority stake. That covers Erba Pura and the rest of the range in the Xerjoff perfumes by style.

Several of these houses are family businesses. Mancera is the sister house of Montale and is run by the same family. The Terenzi family company owns both Tiziana Terenzi and Giardino Benessere. Pantheon Roma and Profumum Roma are family companies too.

Some rows rest on thin or older sources. The Montale row relies on a 2016 interview, and no later ownership change was found. Comme des Garçons runs its own fragrance business after a partial licence with Puig ended in December 2023. Goldfield & Banks plans outside investment but had not taken it. Memo Paris showed no investor stake up to October 2026.

The 8 unverified houses are Atelier des Ors, Fragrance du Bois, Kajal, Kayali, Laurent Mazzone Parfums, Marc-Antoine Barrois, Sospiro and Toskovat'. For each, the sources were missing, outdated, came only from a stockist, did not disclose the split, or conflicted.

Private companies do not publish shareholder lists, so a small or undisclosed outside stake can exist behind any independent row. If you want to try houses outside the big groups, start with the niche perfumes worth trying first.

How 10ML built the ownership map

10ML took every house in its live price index, read who owns the fragrance business from primary sources first, quoted the evidence for each row and re-checked five rows. The result is one row for each of the 89 houses, dated 8 October 2026.

The house list is every distinct house in the CSV behind the 10ML Price-per-ml Index on 8 October 2026. For each house, 10ML looked for who owns the fragrance business today. Annual reports, Universal Registration Documents, SEC filings, investor pages, official press releases, company registries and the brand's own site came first. Trade press was used only as a fallback.

Every source was opened and read on 8 October 2026, and each row quotes it. A row is owned when a group owns the brand and makes the fragrance itself. It is a licence when the brand owner licenses the fragrance to another company. Majority and minority stakes name the outside group or fund. Independent means founder- or family-owned with no group or fund owner found. Unverified means no credible source, or credible sources in conflict. A date is filled only when a source states it.

Five rows were fetched again as a spot check: Gucci, Matière Première, Clive Christian, Atkinsons and the Penhaligon's and Byredo pair. All five matched.

The map leaves some things out. It does not give stake sizes that owners have not published. It does not estimate revenue for a single house. It counts only the houses 10ML sells, never the whole industry. For how many perfumes these houses put out each year, see how many new perfumes the fragrance databases count each year.

10ML is not affiliated with or endorsed by any house or group named in this map.