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La Gardenia

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Leading perfumery retail chain in Italy with a presence in shopping malls and city centers with product offering ranging from mainstream to luxury beauty brands (e.g., Christian Dior, Chanel).

Objective

Invest in a leading player within the Italian perfumery retail space with potential for further growth, both organic (through marketing initiatives to boost brand awareness, increasing market penetration via directly operated stores, and broadening the product portfolio to cover all price levels) and through M&A (due to the high level of fragmentation of the market) to transform the company from a regional to a national player, while contributing to an efficient and highly profitable business model with healthy cash flow generation.

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ENTRY / EXIT
Apr 2006
 / 
Jul 2011
COUNTRY

Italy

SECTOR

Consumer

Key Achievements at Exit

SALES
€134m
EMPLOYEES
605
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Our manifesto: contributing to the development of sustainable finance

Sustainability generates long-term and higher value

Apheon’s ambition is to contribute to the development of sustainable finance by placing sustainability at the core of its strategy and demonstrating by example that it delivers higher and better value for portfolio companies and investors.
 
We are convinced that businesses that respect the planet, that look after their employees and that support their communities will in turn attract the best talent, differentiate themselves from their competition and ultimately emerge as the strongest in the future.

A holistic and collective approach

To succeed with this strategy, Apheon believes a holistic and collective approach is fundamental.

Holistic: it is essential that all aspects of ESG are equally and continuously supported. This is why we are active at every stage of the investment cycle by applying proprietarily developed methodologies and initiatives which are built on 5 priorities covering the broad ESG spectrum:

  • Sustainable revenues (strategy): increasing, when applicable, the share of revenues which directly benefit the environment and/or society

  • Carbon (environment): reducing emissions

  • Talent (social): creating a positive working environment which will attract, develop and retain the best talent

  • Youth, diversity and inclusion (societal): fostering a more inclusive society

  • Transparency (governance): reporting on metrics transparently, and being transparent on potential obstacles
Collective: we believe that it is only through collective action that we can create significant impact. This is why it is our intention to pull together Apheon’s entire ecosystem to undertake our ESG initiatives. This includes mobilizing our employees, portfolio companies, investors, external experts, charitable organizations, public institutions and peers. At this time of global transition, we believe that sustainable finance plays a key role in advancing towards a sustainable planet and society. Financial players, in particular private equity firms such as Apheon, are in a position to drive forward action by leveraging their business model of transforming companies. Apheon is keen to play such role and to move forward every day with humility but also conviction.