Ben Gorham exits on 30 June, leaving Puig to decide how far and fast Byredo can grow.
Ben Gorham will leave Byredo at the end of June, closing the founder’s chapter nearly nineteen years after he mixed his first fragrance. His exit, agreed when Puig bought the Stockholm label in 2022, clears the way for the Spanish group to drive Byredo’s future.
Byredo carried a valuation of more than €1 billion ($1.15 billion) at the time of the deal and has since pushed beyond scent into makeup, leather goods and Virasaat, an 18-karat-gold and sterling-silver jewellery line that nods to Gorham’s Indian heritage. Its catalogue now spans 37 perfumes created with longtime collaborator Jérôme Épinette, with Gypsy Water and Mojave Ghost still leading sales.
The question now is what a Puig-led Byredo will look like. The group has a record of scaling founder-driven labels without dulling their identity—contrast Dries Van Noten’s expansion or, in beauty, the quick rise of Hailey Bieber’s Rhode. Will Byredo’s future hinge on wider distribution, fresh categories or deeper storytelling? Whatever the route, Puig authors the coming chapter.
Gorham’s path to perfumery remains one of beauty’s modern origin tales. A Canadian basketball stint and a fine-arts degree led to a chance meeting with a perfumer; months later he launched Byredo in 2006 with a small run of eau de parfums. His instinct for design and pop-culture proximity—think a home-fragrance link-up with Ikea—bridged luxury and street-level cool.
From July, Byredo operates fully under Puig—a new structure that will test how far a cult fragrance house can grow inside a global portfolio.
