The Fox group (TASE: FOX), controlled by Harel Wizel, is taking aim at the cosmetics sector. The group, which now has 16 brands in clothing, home, and personal care fashion, is negotiating to obtain a franchise to operate independent stores of the Estée Lauder international cosmetics group's brands of makeup, hair care, and personal care products in Israel.

Elcalil, an Estée Lauder subsidiary managed by general manager Oren Revach, currently operates 25 stores in Israel, including the MAC, Bobbi Brown, and Smashbox brands.

Estée Lauder has brands with independent stores that do not currently exist in Israel, such as Clinique. Estée Lauder's brands are known in Israel mainly through an extensive presence in Super-Pharm, which has 90-100 sales points for Estée Lauder and Clinique, and a smaller number of sales points at New-Pharm and Hamashbir Lazarchan, as well as through the independent stores.

Elcalil recently launched an ecommerce website for the Bobbi Brown brand and expanded its presence from independent stores to the Super-Pharm chain, in addition to its already existing MAC website. Wizel will probably want to include these prestigious brands on the Fox group's Terminal X website.

Estée Lauder's sales turnover totaled $12 billion in 2017. The company's market cap on the New York Stock Exchange is $58 billion.

A few months ago, the Fox group acquired 50% of the products of the Shilav chain of baby products stores for NIS 37.5 million and recently negotiated with French company Nox for the sale of the share of the Laline group.

Fox reported good results for the first quarter, despite a challenging period for the fashion industry. Sales totaled NIS 425 million, 22% more than in the first quarter of 2017. Same store sales in clothing and home fashion rose 5% and sales of atmosphere and personal care products (the Laline chain) shot up 16.5%.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 17, 2018

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