Douglas in Europe
Since its beginnings in Hamburg, Douglas' story is marked by advancements and growth. #FORWARDBEAUTY is more than a strategy: It has been Douglas' attitude since 1821. Under the umbrella of the former Hussel Holding, Douglas makes a first step towards international expansion in 1973 acquiring Parfümerie Ruttner in Austria. In the 1980s, store openings and further acquisitions follow in the Netherlands, France and Italy. Further Douglas stores open in eastern Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal during the 1990s. From 2001, Douglas is also present in Poland, Hungary and Monaco. In the years of 2003 until 2011 Douglas maintains perfumeries in Slovenia. In 2004, Douglas enters the Czech and Danish markets. A year later, the company opens perfumeries in Slovakia. The Baltics and Romania join Douglas' market portfolio in 2007, as well as Bulgaria and Croatia a year later. In 2014, the company takes over the French perfumery chain Nocibé, further strengthening and expanding on its position in the French market.
Major acquisitions follow in 2017 and 2018, when Douglas takes over Bodybell, Perfumerías IF in Spain as well as Limoni and La Gardenia in Italy. Apart from its international expansion, Douglas also continues to grow in its home market, Germany. In 2018, the company takes over the majority of Parfümerie Akzente and its successful online shop parfumdreams. With the acquisition of a majority stake in NICHE BEAUTY and the launch of the Douglas Marketplace in 2019, Douglas further enhances its strong position as one of Europe's leading online beauty players.
Today, Douglas' 20,000 beauty advisors across Europe strive to make their customers more beautiful and thus happier. With excellent advice and unique services, Douglas is the No. 1 beauty destination in Europe, both in our stores and online.
We encourage and inspire you to have the confidence to live
your own kind of beauty.
With more than 55,000 high-quality products of more than 750 brands in the areas of perfumery, decorative cosmetics and skincare as well as food supplements and accessories, Douglas is the no. 1 beauty destination. Whether premium industry brands, high-quality exclusive brands, independent trend and niche brands, the Douglas Collection or new own brands that are sold exclusively by Douglas: Our product variety makes the Douglas assortment an important success factor and thus a pillar of our strategy #FORWARDBEAUTY. With the help of the marketplace launched in 2019, we add the brands and products of selected partners to our portfolio. The programme was started in Germany and will be rolled out step by step in other Douglas markets. Every day, around 20,000 dedicated Douglas beauty experts strive to make our customers more beautiful and thus happier with excellent consultation and unique services: We believe that people are most beautiful when they have the self-confidence to be how they want to be. As one of the leading premium beauty retailers, Douglas wants to take a clear stance on beauty. We want to encourage and inspire all of our customers to express their own kind of beauty - something that is more individual than ever today. We encourage our customers to make themselves beautiful for their own pleasure. It is not about other people's expectations.
The foundations of Douglas as we know it today were laid by Scottish immigrant John Sharp Douglas, who opened a soap manufactory in Hamburg's famous warehouse district, Speicherstadt, in 1821. From the very beginning, Douglas pioneered the purpose of our #FOWARDBEAUTY strategy, creating premium products and starting what, at that time, was a modern business. Douglas' products - such as 'Coconut Oil Soda Soap' developed in 1830 or 'Chinese Heavenly Soap' from 1840 - quickly turned into success stories. Chinese Heavenly Soap was awarded a medal at the first World Fair in London in 1851. 'J.S. Douglas Sons' stood for high-quality fine soaps and modern product ideas. After Douglas' death, the Hamburg merchants Gustav Adolph Hinrich Runge and Johann Adolph Kolbe took over the company but kept the name 'J.S. Douglas Sons'. In 1909, their heir and successor handed over the responsibilities for the soap factory to his wife.