Q&A: Molton Brown execs on creating an ecosystem of fragrance-first products

You may have heard all about Molton Brown’s bath, body and home range, but the brand says its signature fragrances are the common thread in all its products. 

As Molton Brown relaunches itself as a fragrance-first brand, Retail Week sat down with its general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Asia Simon James and its global vice president for brand and marketing Beatrice Descorps to find out why the retailer’s signature fragrances make all its products authentic and unique, its golden-quarter predictions and more.

What’s different about Molton Brown and when did the shift take place? 

James: “The business I joined nine years ago was a business that relied on a huge gifting period at Christmas. That gifting was all centred around body wash and handwash, and our mindset was totally focused on talking to our loyal customers and our own estates. And very often, during discussions around the leadership table, we were talking to ourselves. We weren’t putting ourselves in the shoes of the consumer.  

“When we launched our eau de parfum range five years ago, that’s when that shift happened. We used to be a body- and hand-driven gifting brand focused on our own stores on the high street in the UK, and we’ve now moved to a fragrance-first mindset, thinking about our business-to-business partners and that execution in wholesale. And we’re still very much on that transformation.” 

Why choose fragrance and what does this mean for other categories within the brand? 

Descorps: “The premium fragrance category is buoyant. And, within that, it’s really the niche, the more artistic fragrance that is driving that category, and we had a very small share of that good market, whereas within the bath and shower gel category in the UK we are the leader by far. But there is only so much we can grow in a category, which by nature is much smaller. In fragrance, we felt the opportunity was huge.  

“But what makes us unique is that we have an eau de parfum, but you can expand your fragrance experience with how you cleanse with our handwash and bath and body wash, or experience it at home with our scented candles and aroma reeds. 

“So, really, the whole idea is to reinvent the service and to curate a world of sense or fragrance worlds, because that’s very unique to us. So fragrance-first doesn’t mean fragrance only. It’s really an ecosystem.” 

What are your predictions for the golden quarter?

James: “We’re absolutely no different to most beauty brands. We’re running our business at a loss until we get to November, and in November and December we make our annual profit. So we’re definitely looking for growth. We’re looking for 5% growth this year. Our compound annual growth for the last seven years has been around 6.5%. So we feel it’s achievable.  

“We’ve got a great gifting line-up this year, starting at £12 for a fragrance bauble and all the way up to £225 with our advent calendar.

“We had a phenomenal year with John Lewis last year because they really backed the Christmas gifting. We’re trading well ahead with John Lewis this year and online with some of our digital players. It’s a strong story there, too. I don’t want to take anything for granted because there’s an awful lot of hard work to go, but I think things are all lined up to go the way it should.”

Descorps: “From a brand perspective, for Christmas, we are talking about gifting in a way more personal and human way. We want customers to not only shop for their close friends and family, but also themselves. And so the coming campaign will be quite noticeable from that perspective because it is different from what we’ve been doing.”

What can we expect from Molton Brown in the long term?

James: “The UK will remain our priority market while we work through this transition in wholesale. We have a very healthy profitable wholesale business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. When we are fully satisfied with how we are operating in the UK, we can leverage that and the same goes for our US wholesale business. Currently, the region makes up for 18% of sales and we’ll see that market really come into focus for us in 2026/2027.

“In terms of new markets, we are growing our Asian business through our distributors and, at some point within the 2030 timeframe, we’ll be looking at entering South America.”