EXCLUSIVE: With a New Minority Investor, Amouage Will Open More Monobrand Boutiques
PARIS — Amouage, infused with Omani culture, has a new long-term minority shareholder — L’Oréal.
“The high-end fragrance house Amouage has had an impressive journey: from its noble origins as the ‘Gift of Kings’ to its modern incarnation as an icon of the perfumery world,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive officer of L’Oréal. “As we celebrate 25 years of L’Oréal’s presence in the [Gulf Cooperation Council], we are truly honored to join the Amouage journey, and as the global leader in fragrances, we are eager to contribute to bringing these exquisite scents, symbolic of the Arabic culture, to the whole world.”
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The Muscat-based brand, which takes an artisanal, wholly integrated approach to fragrance-making, remains independent. In 2024, it generated retail sales exceeding $260 million, up 30 percent year-on-year, growing almost 2.5-times faster than the global perfume market.
That came off the back of four years when Amouage sales rose over 20 percent year-on-year, causing business to more than double during the prior three years. Plus-20 percent of its business comes from new innovations.
“Our growth over the past years is more than just numbers; it is rather a reflection of the global appreciation for what Amouage stands for: excellence in craftsmanship, authenticity and a deep respect for Oman’s heritage,” said Amouage chairman Sayyid Khalid bin Hamad Al Busaidi, a member of the Omani royal family.
The brand was the brainchild of His Late Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and founded in 1983 by the late Sayyid Hamad AI Busaidi.
“From a house born in Oman, inspired by its rich culture and natural treasures, we’ve shown that it is possible to resonate with global audiences without ever compromising our identity,” added Sayyid Khalid bin Hamad Al Busaidi. “As we continue to expand, Amouage remains a proud custodian of Oman’s story, sharing its beauty with the world while staying true to the values that have shaped our legacy.”
“Amouage” is a mash-up of the French word for love, “amour,” and the Arabic word for “waves.” In today’s highly competitive niche fragrance market, Amouage has set the bar high.
“The vision for the house is to become the number-one high-perfumery brand in the world,” said Marco Parsiegla, chief executive officer of Amouage. “We don’t refer to it as niche, because this is not qualifying really what we are about. For us, it’s all about quality. It’s all about the craft. With our model and our system, we are setting ourselves a little bit apart, and we feel that those could be drivers moving forward.”
He described Amouage’s mission as “to create magic in perfumery.”
“The industry lost a little bit of that edge, that amazement, that magic element,” Parsiegla said. “We want to bring that back, and I think we made fantastic inroads.”
The drive is to continue further in that direction. Bolstering Amouage’s growth have been numerous elements, including its core culture, craft and creativity, according to Parsiegla. “We see ourselves as a house of creativity — [not] as a producer as such,” he said.
The executive cited as an example Amouage’s December 2024 opening in Shanghai’s Zhangyuan. “What is important if we open a new retail concept in a new market, for us it’s about building a cultural bridge between our home, which is Oman, and where we are becoming a guest of that country,” he said.
Amouage looked to history, when Omanis sailed to China on the trade route.
“If you go into the shop, you’re actually immersing yourself under the water,” said Parsiegla. “You will see a dhow, the traditional boat, in the ceiling.”
In Muscat, Amouage has an open-to-the-public Manufacture and Visitor’s center, where people can see all of the brand’s processes, including ingredient maceration to bottling and packaging by hand. It attracts more than 25,000 visitors yearly.
Amouage banks on quality. Despite the cost of pure fragrance oil almost doubling, the brand keeps using it.
“If you want to be a high perfumery house, you need to own the culture and craft, and master the creativity, but you also need to make the right financial choices,” said Parsiegla. “In the long term, this is absolutely playing out.”
Another pillar of Amouage’s model is transparency. “There was a lot of room to be much more transparent and have a real dialog with your clients and the community about what we are doing,” he said.
To wit: Every few weeks Amouage showcased how the Material fragrance, with its high concentration of vanilla, changed color every few weeks.
Amouage’s factory is open to the public, as well. He and Renaud Salmon, the brand’s chief creative officer, try to meet anyone who stops by their offices and ask.
For fragrances, Amouage works with top perfumers. “We are collaborating,” said Parsiegla. “When Renaud has an inspiration or a new creation, he thinks who in the world of perfumers would be the right partner?”
Competitiveness is put aside, and they all met altogether.
For olfactive ingredients, Amouage does not begin with cost targets. “We start from the creativity,” said Parsiegla. “That opens up a whole new level with the master perfumers and perfumers to start realizing some of their dreams.”
Amouage’s eau de parfum generally has an oil concentration of 25 percent, which is very elevated, and inspired by Oman and Omanis’ inherent generosity, according to Parsiegla. The Exceptional Extraits, which retail for about $500 per 100-ml. bottle, has up to 56 percent.
“People were saying: ‘You guys are crazy,’” said Parsiegla. Yet Exceptional Extraits now generate more than 15 percent of Amouage’s business.
“Growth on that one was more than 100 percent [in 2024],” said Parsiegla, of that line.
Amouage, with perfume prices ranging from 365 euros to 540 euros, ages its fragrances. “This is something a lot of other players would not do because of cash flow,” said Parsiegla. “It’s important as a high-perfumery house, to overcome that.”
Six months is the longest aging period for Amouage scents. That’s used for Interlude fragrances and Exceptional Extraits.
In fall 2024, Amouage introduced The Essences that go one step further. The three fragrances have an oil concentration of 30 percent that undergo a six-month double-infusion process. The tank in which it stood was stirred by hand every day.
“The product needs love,” said Parsiegla. “I think the client can see at the end the love.”
The Essences come in bottles designed with the help of Swiss watchmakers. “We are quite obsessed about not only being the very best in what we are doing, but actually reinventing the codes of perfumery,” said Parsiegla. “What is very rewarding is we’re seeing more and more clients joining our community.”
More than 80 percent of Amouage’s clients are younger than 45 years old. On social platforms in 2024, the brand reached almost 400 million people. “It’s a high-quality engagement,” Parsiegla said.
He considers Amouage as disrupting retail. Every boutique is unique. When developing the Petite Boutique in New York’s SoHo last year, it was realized that the building’s red bricks were similar to the red soil used to build houses and make pottery in Oman.
“We want to open more of those lighthouse doors around the world,” said Parseigla. There are 17 today, but the number could triple in the next five years.
“That’s definitely one area where we will use the investment fund coming in, to accelerate that journey for us because that’s a way to connect with people and showcase what we are doing,” he said.
So, too, are sustainability-minded initiatives, including Amouage transforming Wadi Dawkah into the first smart forest in the GCC region by geotagging and then monitoring every QR-coded frankincense tree.
“The idea is, at some point, we will be using blockchain to link it from the tree all the way to the pack,” said Parsiegla.
An enormous amount of development work has been poured into Amouage since 2019, when he and Salmon joined the brand.
“We would love to bring our craft, our philosophy, our ethos, a little bit stronger to more markets around the world, and that requires an investment,” said Parsiegla. “With the long-term minority investment, it allows us to empower the realization of our vision.”
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