Authentic Brands Group has selected a previous collaborator to hold the fragrance licenses for David Beckham and Nautica.
Interparfums Inc. has picked up the licenses for both brands. It comes just days after Authentic Brands Group finalized its acquisition of 51 percent of the entity that owns all and licenses all of Guess’ intellectual property. Interparfums has held the Guess fragrance license since 2018.
Both of the licenses are currently held by Coty Inc. and housed in its Consumer Brands division which, as reported by WWD, is the subject of its strategic review for its mass color cosmetics business, in addition to its operations in Brazil. The David Beckham license will change hands effective April 1, 2028, while Nautica’s will effective Jan. 1, 2030, upon their respective expirations.
Jean Madar, chairman and chief executive officer of Interparfums, expects that first-year sales for Nautica will surpass $70 million upon assumption of the license, and $50 million for Beckham’s.
“With their outstanding reputation for craftsmanship in fragrance, I’m delighted to announce my partnership with Interparfums to evolve my fragrances for the long term. Together with their world-leading team, we will create products that are distinctive and timeless. I can’t wait to get started,” Beckham said in a statement.
Added Jamie Salter, chairman, CEO and founder of Authentic Brands Group, “We’re announcing a set of exclusive, long-term, worldwide fragrance agreements with Interparfums spanning David Beckham and Nautica, following the recent multiyear extension of Guess fragrances, together forming a multibrand, multidecade global relationship. Three distinctive brands, one common thread: pairing iconic IP with a category leader that has the expertise, infrastructure and long-term vision to build enduring global fragrance businesses.
“This is exactly how the Authentic platform is designed to work: disciplined brand stewardship, deep alignment with top-tier operators, and a portfolio approach that allows partners like Interparfums to invest with confidence across multiple brands and decades-long horizons,” Salter continued.
Interparfums, which received the WWD Honor for Public Beauty Company in October 2025, said at the time it was evaluating potential celebrities to partner with as opposed to its bread-and-butter luxury and apparel brands, such as Donna Karan, Jimmy Choo, Montblanc and Salvatore Ferragamo.
Most recently, Beckham had debuted a trio of eaux de parfum in 2021, taking aim at a luxury customer. He also has his longevity-geared supplement brand IM8. Nautica’s beauty business has gone quiet in recent years. However, for various launches between 2007 and 2012, first-year sales were slated to reach anywhere between $17 million and $30 million.
“Beckham is a celebrity, but Beckham is a lifestyle [brand]. His face is everywhere and he’s an icon for many people,” Madar said in an interview. “You will see more celebrities coming to our portfolio. We are going to continue to explore new opportunities, especially with Authentic. We are going to see what’s in their portfolio and makes sense. It’s very possible that we do more with personalities.”
For Nautica, “It has amazing heritage and we believe we can bring back some energy, and authenticity into Nautica. I think we could create products that have more personality, but we have plenty of time. We’re going to start and take our time,” Madar said. “We look to frame this around Gen Z, absolutely, but with Nautica, it’s the brand that should be going back to a $100 million business. It’s a goal that’s absolutely achievable. Fifteen years ago, a launch from Nautica was a major launch.”
In the case of both brands, Madar expects to grow them digitally. “We have a great, great business on Amazon and TikTok,” Madar said.
He also pointed to Guess as an example of a brand Interparfums has elevated via its distribution. “These brands are international and not U.S. only, so we’d work with perfumery chains worldwide, they have a presence. In the U.S., we work with the chains, I don’t think a department store format would work, it would be more specialty.”
The deal comes off the heels of holiday, which Madar said went well across the portfolio. “We had great sell-through for holiday and have had a great January,” he said. “We had orders immediately. I remain optimistic in the U.S. market. I’m cautious, as there is uncertainty with tariffs and the economy in general, so we are cautiously optimistic.”
