Unilever, Henkel and L’Oréal are reported to have put forward bids to buy Vogue International, a US consumer goods company that creates hair and personal care brands.
Vogue International, headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, US, is the owner of OGX, FX and Proganix salon-inspired hair care, as well as the Maui Moisture beauty line.
In a report by Reuters, which quoted unnamed sources, the three frontrunners to take over the company are FMCG giants Unilever, Henkel and L’Oréal. All three brands notably missed out on the recent deal that saw Coty acquire 31 brands from P&G.
Vogue International was last up for sale in 2013 for approximately $1bn. However, concerns were reported to have been raised around a recent rebrand leading to the sale being called off. Private equity firm Carlyle Group ended up acquiring a 49% staking in the company for roughly $400m in January 2014.
The company’s brand OGX had undergone a rebrand from Organix in an effort to refresh the its image following litigation surrounding the right to label OGX products as organic according to Californian standards.
At the time, according to the California Organic Products Act cosmetics labelled as organic had to contain at least 70% organically-produced ingredients – a percentage that Organix’s products did not meet. Organix was not allowed to continue using its organic-inspired name unless it changed its formulation.
Vogue International was founded in 1987 by Todd Christopher. Its product are distributed to retailers in its home market of the US as 38 overseas countries. On the brand’s website, Christopher said: “We are constantly recreating the company so we are always offering innovative products to a very savvy consumer. Customers can always look to us for the most advanced beauty products on the market today.”