Extravaganza Beauty buys Roja London, keeping founder Roja Dove on as consultant
Chief executive Audrey Minard stays on to run the house as it targets deeper growth across the Middle East.
Roja Dove, the master perfumer, author and fragrance historian, has sold Roja London to Extravaganza Beauty, a Middle Eastern group that distributes and invests in high-end niche fragrances. The price was not disclosed. Roja London, founded in 2011, said the sale will unlock support and resources to accelerate its growth across key markets.
Audrey Minard, chief executive of Roja London since 2021, will continue in her role once the deal completes, working alongside the Extravaganza team. Dove is moving into a consultancy role, staying on to share what the company calls his expertise and creative guidance as the house he founded enters what it terms its next chapter.
The stated plan is to deepen the brand's presence in key markets and to invest in product development across its signature collections: Prestige, Elysium, Aoud, Isola and Art. Reinforcing Roja London's positioning in the Middle East is named specifically as a priority, building on a commercial partnership Minard says already runs through the Gulf Cooperation Council.
What each side gets from the deal
Minard said that from the start of the Gulf partnership, Extravaganza Beauty demonstrated a strong understanding of the standards required to build and commercialise niche luxury fragrances. What excites her about the new arrangement, she said, is a shared entrepreneurial spirit and shared ambitions for the brand's next phase of global growth.
Dove described founding the company as incredibly personal, born from passion and a love of quality and creativity. He said Extravaganza has championed creative perfumery in the Middle East and has the drive, expertise and respect for the brand to let it grow while protecting its distinctive character.
The consultancy role, Dove said, suits him best because creativity and education have always been at the heart of what he loves. He said he feels enormous pride for what has been created with Roja London and has confidence that the brand's legacy is now in safe hands under the new ownership.
Chadi Douaihy, chairman at Extravaganza Beauty, framed the acquisition as confidence in the brand, its team and its long-term potential. He said the group looks forward to supporting the business through its next stage of growth, accelerating development while continuing to deliver what he called an uncompromising luxury experience.
How Roja London reaches customers today
Roja London is distributed globally through independent retailers and department stores including Harrods, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, KaDeWe, Oberpollinger, Jovoy, Laure and El Palacio de Hierro. The brand also runs its own shop in the Burlington Arcade, in London's Mayfair, close to the historic covered arcades the district is known for.
Its fragrances are made in England using sustainably sourced ingredients and packaged in the signature crystal-embellished bottles that have become the house's visual signature. In September 2024, Roja London was awarded the Butterfly Mark accreditation by Positive Luxury, in recognition of its commitment to sustainable and responsible business practices.
Extravaganza Beauty itself runs a diversified portfolio built on partnerships with Amouage, Ex Nihilo, Nishane, Maison Crivelli and Marc-Antoine Barois, positioning it firmly within niche and independent perfumery. The group distributes fragrances across the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and Africa, with a presence extending into other markets globally.
The founder behind the house
Dove is known beyond the brand as the author of The Essence of Perfume, published in 2006 and updated in 2014, a survey of fragrance history and the business behind it. Chapters cover the human sense of smell, raw materials and extraction methods, the classic houses, bottle-makers and his own account of founding Roja London.
In the 2014 edition of that book he wrote that innovative, revolutionary perfumery had stirred again, a line that now reads as a preface to the ownership change he has just made. His transition to consultant preserves that creative voice inside the house without him running its day-to-day commercial operations.
The deal fits a wider pattern of Gulf-based groups buying into independent Western fragrance houses rather than simply distributing them, converting a commercial partnership into outright ownership. Extravaganza's existing GCC relationship with Roja London, cited by Minard, appears to have been the route through which this acquisition was negotiated and agreed.
Niche perfumery has drawn sustained investor interest as prestige beauty categories have held up better than mass segments in several markets, a dynamic that has separately supported reported growth for larger prestige retailers this year. None of the financial terms of the Roja London transaction, including price or ownership split, have been made public by either party.
What happens next is a period of integration under Minard's continued leadership, with Extravaganza's team working alongside her to expand and reinforce the Roja London business specifically in the Middle East. Neither company has given a timetable for new product launches or for completion of the transaction beyond describing it as under way.
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Image: Roja London