When it closed its deal with Shiseido Americas in December 2021, global private equity company Advent International created a new organization called Orveon to serve as parent to bareMinerals, Buxom and Laura Mercier. It also tapped beauty industry veteran Pascal Houdayer to serve as CEO of the standalone business.
 

Houdayer’s three decades of experience includes stints as CEO of dermo-cosmetics company NAOS, and executive vice president and board member at Henkel, responsible for the Beauty Care division. In 2017, he led Henkel’s carve-out of Shiseido’s North American Hair Professional business, including Joico and Zotos. Prior to Henkel, Houdayer worked for 19 years at Procter & Gamble holding various international management positions in the US, Europe and Africa. 
 
Houdayer’s 30 years of senior management experience in the beauty industry will certainly help him steer this new organization. Orveon’s team will need to tap into what made each brand a leader in their respective spaces while at the same time refreshing their positions with consumers who are increasingly more focused on wellness.
 
The three brands were standouts and disruptors. BareMinerals is the oldest of the group. Founded in 1995, it led the skyrocketing growth of the mineral-based cosmetics category, and many contend it was also the genesis of the “clean beauty” movement with its “makeup so pure and clean you can sleep in it” positioning. Prestige cosmetics brand Laura Mercier, which was founded in 1996, was a leader in the natural “flawless face” look. Since its debut in 2007, Buxom’s “going big, being bold, and feeling sexy” messaging resonated with color cosmetic customers who coveted its lip products.
 
Shiseido acquired bareMinerals in 2010 in a deal valued at $1.7 billion, and picked up the other two properties in 2016 for an estimated $248 million. It sold the group to Advent for $700 million.
 
Speaking when the deal was closed, Ron Gee, president and CEO of Shiseido Americas, said that the transaction with Advent will infuse bareMinerals, Buxom and Laura Mercier with the “resources and support needed for the brands and their talented teams to continue to grow.”
 
Opportunities Ahead

“Moving forward and within Orveon’s ecosystem, our three brands have the potential to each bring a unique contribution to the evolution of beauty towards health and wellness,” Houdayer told Happi.  “BareMinerals will again reinvent beauty, evolving from clean toward natural beauty and wellness; Laura Mercier is uniquely positioned to champion premium makeup artistry; while Buxom will become a powerful means of self-expression.”
 
According to Sidi Drissi, who is brand president of bareMinerals and Buxom, “Orveon’s brands are anchored in purpose and unique in their disruption of the industry when they were created by their founders.”
 
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity of having a greater impact on cultural, social and societal challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s world through our collective of people, brands and immersive experiences for our employees and customers,” he added. 
 
Houdayer says the team assembled at Orveon is strong.
 
“We are blessed to welcome global talented beauty addicts to our company. For our employees who have joined the global community of Orveon in more than 22 countries globally, they came to join a human-sized, entrepreneurial, fast and agile beauty and wellness company. They are now experiencing a culture of stark honesty, boldness and approachability,” he said.
 
When it comes to R&D, Orveon plans to leverage expertise within the organization, and look outside, too.
 
“We are a smaller team, and we see that as a clear competitive advantage. We are structuring R&D to leverage technologies transversally across our collective of three brands—for example, mutually beneficial innovations in color, mascara, sustainability and more,” said Mike Wong, PhD, chief science officer at Orveon Global.  We are also working more closely with external partners, including ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers, testing labs and universities globally to identify the best technologies and constantly improve. The key is to have the right people and processes, in order to design innovations in product, services but also experiences. 
 
Wong has led R&D teams for more than 25 years at both small companies and large multinationals.
 
In fact, there’s a wealth of expertise within this young organization, according to Houdayer.
 
“We have built a genuinely diverse team of executive management board members with unique expertise in beauty and wellness across many countries, categories and functions. As a fun fact, the Orveon Executive Committee has close to 200 years of beauty experience, that they are now bringing to the consumers we serve – combined combined with unique skills, experience and capabilities in business transformation and value creation.”