Shiseido

Founding

The name Shiseido comes from a passage in the Chinese classic I Ching (Book of Changes) meaning "praise the virtues of the earth which nurtures new life and brings forth significant values".

Arinobu Fukuhara, former head pharmacist to the Imperial Japanese Navy, established the Shiseido Pharmacy in 1872. After a visit to the United States and Europe, Arinobu added a soda fountain to the store. This later grew into the Shiseido Parlor restaurant business, and eventually led to the introduction of ice cream in Japan.

Arinobu passed on his company to his son, Shinzō Fukuhara, who became the company's second president in 1913. After Shinzō's experience traveling to Europe and the United States, he became interested in advertising as a large selling point for Shiseido which lead him to dedicate extensive resources to the company's design, much of which can be seen from product packaging and magazines from this time.

Expansion

In 1917, Shiseido introduced Rainbow Face Powder. This was a face powder with seven colors in a period when white face powders were the norm in Japan. In 1923, the company began expanding its store-base.

The company was incorporated as a kabushiki gaisha (Japanese joint-stock company) in 1927. In 2017, Shiseido acquired AI and AR developer Giaran to get ahead in the tech space. Shisheido plans to use Giaran’s beauty simulation technology to boost its digital sales.

Early 20th century

In 1916, Shiseido transitioned from using historical images of Japanese female beauty to more Western ideals of beauty. The more contemporary images showed women with hair swept up rather than cascading back and incorporated trendy art nouveau style block scripts. This shift in imagery coincided with increasing Western influence in Japan, allowing Shiseido to capitalize on this cultural change.

The Ginza district burned during the Kanto earthquake of 1923. This incident and the great depression in the 1930s, caused a decrease in sales of Shiseido. Shiseido partnered with stores to form the Shiseido Cosmetics Chain Store System. Therefore, consumers could rest assured that they could purchase Shiseido products at the same price at any store. In 1932, the representative Shiseido brand of top class cosmetic products of the time, De Luxe, was born. Following the outbreak of World War II, the De Luxe brand was considered an extravagance and production ceased. However, it was re-launched in 1951, when the economy began to recover. Shiseido started to expand its cosmetics markets to the international market in the 1950s to 1980s.

Reformation

In 2021, Shiseido sold its personal care business to a company held by British equity firm CVC Capital Partners, Shiseido also transferred all of its domestic personal care businesses to its Fine Today Shiseido subsidiary and was sold to CVC after the completion in July 2021.

Finances and operations

In the first quarter of 2013, Shiseido made a profit of ¥2.66 billion (US$26.87 million) on sales of ¥162.36bn (US$1.64bn). On 15 July 2013, Shiseido announced it was opening a wholly owned subsidiary in India. On 20 February 2014, Shiseido agreed to sell its Carita and Decléor brands to L’Oréal for €227.5M (US$312.93M). This sale resulted in Shiseido showing profits despite running into losses.

In November 2023, Shiseido cut their profit forecast and suffered a 14% decline in stock price, the largest drop in a single day since October 2008. Shiseido cited dropping demand in the Chinese market due to the release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor into the Pacific Ocean, after approval by the IAEA. The politicized domestic reporting of this decision drove Chinese customers to boycott or avoid Japanese cosmetics brands.

In 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Madrid Yearly Review ranked Shiseido's number of marks applications filled under the Madrid System as 7th in the world, with 103 trademarks applications submitted during 2023.

Subsidiaries

This is a partial list of Shiseido's wholly owned brands and subsidiaries, as well as exclusive licensing agreements.

On January 18, 2017, Shiseido acquired Palo Alto, California-based, digital tech company MATCHCo, a startup described by co-founder and former professional skateboarder, Andy Howell, as "AI for beauty." The MATCHCo technology was rebranded by Shiseido as MADE-2-FIT, a bareMinerals iPhone app which offered "precise skin tone analysis via a set of simple user scans, with the help of a virtual makeup artist with voice guidance." To supplement MatchCo., Shiseido later acquired Giaran Inc., a data driven company, in November 2017.

In January 2018, the company acquired all the assets of Olivo Laboratories.

In December 2023, Shiseido acquired Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare brand which offers dermatologist-led, science-based prestige skincare that has revolutionized the beauty industry by bringing high-level products to consumers everywhere.