The Shiseido Professional hair business in Asia Pacific is now owned by German firm Henkel after it closed deals to acquire outfits in Malaysia and Taiwan. The multinational consumer giant takes over Sublimic, Primience and several other brands licensed from Shiseido Professional in Japan.
In July 2022, Henkel scooped up Shiseido hair businesses in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand as it looked to gain a bigger foothold in the region through salons. Sealing the deal for Malaysian and Taiwanese operations ensured it had all based covered.
Details on how Henkel will handle brands in Asia Pacific remain scarce apart from some talk about how it wants to work on product development and ingredient formulation for consumers.
“It is an exciting milestone to be able to offer our salon partners a unique combination of both western and Asian hair beauty solutions through our Schwarzkopf Professional and newly added Shiseido Professional brands,” Henkel Consumer Brands General Manager for Malaysia and Singapore, Richard Gan, was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
Henkel has struggled to gain traction in beauty salons across the region. That has not been an issue for Shiseido Professional which has been more readily accepted by hairdressers.
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Interesting Analysis
Although Henkel won’t come out and say it, this move is an admission that Schwarzkopf had gone as far as it could in Asia Pacific. Let’s stress, that is not a bad thing. Consumers in the region gravitate more towards Japanese and Korean brands so acquiring one makes a lot of sense. The purchase of Shiseido Professional puts the German MNC in a significant number of beauty salons in Southeast Asia that it was never gaining access to.
The most likely move here is that Henkel tries to get those Shiseido salons to start using Schwarzkopf products as well. This would increase visibility for its brand and possibly improve sales of its direct-to-consumer offerings.
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