P&G to Sell Frédéric Fekkai Brand and Salons

And Josh Beckerman By Serena Ng 

Procter & Gamble Co. will sell its Frédéric Fekkai hair care brand and salons, the latest move by the consumer-products company to focus on a smaller number of core brands.

Designer Parfums, whose products include Jean Patou fragrances, and Luxe Brands, which recently announced a fragrance partnership with singer Ariana Grande, have formed a new joint venture that will buy the business.

P&G declined to disclose the sale price. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2008 that the purchase of Frédéric Fekkai from private-equity firm Catterton Partners was valued at slightly more than $400 million.

Fekkai is primarily a North American brand. The business being sold has 225 employees, a vast majority of which are stylists and salon workers.

A P&G spokesman said the sale is in line with the company's broader plan to shed noncore brands to better focus on what it considers its core beauty brands, which include hair-care products Pantene and Head & Shoulders.

P&G has so far announced plans for around 40 brand exits out of a goal of about 100, and wants to map out the remainder of the divestments or exits by this summer.

Investment bankers are currently working on finding buyers for other P&G beauty brands including its Wella and Clairol salon hair-care products division and a portfolio of designer fragrances. Those brands collectively generate close to a third of P&G's beauty sales.

Late last year, P&G struck deals to sell its Camay and Zest soap brands to Unilever PLC and battery maker Duracell to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Write to Josh Beckerman at [e-mail] and Serena Ng at [e-mail]

Access Investor Kit for Procter & Gamble Co.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US7427181091

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires