Burberry to launch skincare

Fashion powerhouse Burberry has announced plans to move into the skincare arena by 2015.

According to WWD , the British fashion house in fact has supersize plans in beauty - notably a Beauty Box retail concept in Asia, a fragrance for 'midteens' launching in September, and rather excitingly, a brand new skincare offering.

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Why would Burberry break into skincare? Well it's not just because its Midas touch has worked so well for its fragrance and make-up offering, but also because, as Burberry chief operating officer John Smith explains, "£26 billion of the £60 billion pound beauty market comes from skincare alone." Like we said, 'big' plans.

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Moving into skincare is also an exercise in customer relations; skincare "drives loyalty over time," says Smith. But while Burberry obviously fancies its beauty chances (it has just taken its fragrance business in-house) it also knows that skincare loyalty doesn't come easy - whatever its 2015 offering, Burberry has to compete with an already pretty saturated market, and an extremely technically advanced one at that.

So the team are looking out-house and calling upon the experts. "We are talking to a range of possible partners about a range of possible relationships," Smith explained. It has to - Burberry hopes to become one of the top 10 players in the luxury skincare field.

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With beauty wholesale revenue set to grow by 25 per cent in the next 12 months globally, "it's a prize worth pursuing," adds Smith. And if Burberry can perfect a moisturiser the way it does a trench, then we expect a prize product too.

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