The L’Oréal group is rationalising its brand portfolio, and has sold cosmetics brands Decléor and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to French group Cospal for an undisclosed amount. Cospal is a newly created organisation led by Matthieu Lesieur, whose aim is to expand in the buoyant beauty and wellness market.

“With this double acquisition, the Cospal group has reached a major milestone in its growth strategy, affirming its intention to become a key player in the beauty sector. Rejuvenating two iconic brands like Decléor and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc is a unique opportunity to preserve their heritage while breathing into them a new, innovation-driven impetus,” said Lesieur, president of Cospal.

Before setting up Cospal, Lesieur co-founded WeFix, a smartphone repair chain operating over 120 stores in France, which was then sold to the Fnac-Darty group. Lesieur has long-standing family links to Decléor, since his father had acquired the brand in the late 1980s.  

Decléor, originally founded in the 1970s and specialised in aromatherapy, was bought by Hervé Lesieur in 1989, and later sold to Japanese group Shiseido. In February 2014, L’Oréal bought Decléor together with another cosmetics brand, Carita, for a total amount of €230 million. The two brands became part of the L’Oréal group’s professional products division. Later, Decléor was moved to the group’s dermatological beauty division, and Carita became part of the luxury division. A year ago, L’Oréal officially announced it would stop commercialising Decléor, to focus on its own dermocosmetics brands.

“Decléor needs to be reinvented from scratch. We must redefine the product range, tell the market that the brand is back, restructure its distribution,” said Lesieur.

As for Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, Cospal has bought the brand’s European dermatological spa centre, which welcomes more than 100,000 visitors and spa customers every year, but also the license to the Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc skincare brand, sold chiefly in pharmacies.

“We will capitalise on the investments made by the previous owners, and on the synergy between the spa centre and the Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc skincare brand,” said Lesieur.