Fragrance Mogul’s Biggest Regret: Selling Her Brand
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Jo Malone’s Regret: Selling Her Name with Her Perfume Brand
ms Jo Malone CBE, british perfumer and founder of fragrance brands jo Malone London and Jo Loves.
Mike Green, CNBC
Ms Jo Malone CBE became a millionaire after selling her namesake perfume brand in 1999, and decades later has only one regret: never being able to use her name again.
Malone founded fragrance brand Jo Malone London in 1990 and sold it to the Estee lauder Companies nine years later – along with the rights to use her name in any business.
“I don’t look back and think to myself: ‘If I’d waited another five years, I could have made double the amount,'” the 62-year-old British entrepreneur said on an episode of CNBC’s “Executive Decisions” podcast with Steve Sedgwick.
But she added: “I think the one thing I regret – and they [Estée Lauder] may not have bought the company [without it] – is the use of my name. That’s a struggle, even today.”