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Growing demand for prestige perfumes helped lift Interparfums sales 15 percent year-on-year to $425 million – beating analyst expectations of $413 million – in its third quarter ending Sep. 30, announced Monday.
Interparfums manufactures and distributes perfumes for fashion companies including Guess, DKNY and Roberto Cavalli. Its European arm showed the most buoyancy, with sales rising 21 percent to $282 million, while the US showed slower growth, lifting 9 percent to $146 million.
Prestige fragrance is the industry’s fastest-growing category, with a surge of new entrants from fashion houses such as Balmain, Valentino and Bottega Veneta, while demand for niche names such as Byredo has added further buoyancy.
Some brands fared better than others. In a statement, chief executive Jean Madar said sales of Lacoste and Roberto Cavalli scents had contributed 10 percent to its growth and that Jimmy Choo and Montblanc perfumes had been especially popular in Europe, but sales of Coach’s core line of scents remained flat.
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In a note, Jefferies analyst Ashley Helgans said its full-year guidance of $1.45 billion is beatable – it upgraded Interparfums to “buy” in July.
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