It is not hard to understand how growing up in the shadow of a successful parent can be overwhelming.
That’s why Irene Forte, daughter of English hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, says she’s always wanted to feel the triumph that comes from building something great of her own.
Forte, 35, spent nearly a decade working for her father’s luxury hotel chain, Rocco Forte Hotels, but in 2019 she decided to launch her own luxury brand, Irene Forte Skincare.
“I guess I’ve always really wanted to prove myself coming from a family of successful entrepreneurs,” she says.
“From a young age, I feel like I’ve always wanted to be successful in my own right and I feel like working in the family business wasn’t actually enough for me.”
The Irene Forte Skincare brand has since become a major player in the luxury skincare market, with sales up 300 per cent last year and a repeat customer purchase rate of 56 per cent, which she says is more than double the industry standard of 25 per cent.
Spotting an opportunity
Whilst we sit and chat in one of her father’s flagship dining rooms of Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, Forte tells me it was while she was working across the Rocco Forte Hotel spas that she came up with the idea.
Originally introduced to help unify the brand identity in the spas across the 14 hotels and resorts, the skincare line eventually expanded beyond the Rocco Forte Hotel shelves.
She says the secret to the early success of the luxury skincare products – which range from its flagship £165 hibiscus night cream to £225 phytomelatonin rejuvenating serum – is found within the brand’s commitment to science and sustainability.
The brand is B-Corp certified – a certification awarded to purpose-led companies meeting high standards of social and environmental performance – and is manufactured in Italy using natural ingredients.
“We managed to be a sustainable brand that is also luxurious, which I think is also quite rare,” she says.
The bar is always higher…
Irene Forte Skincare products are stocked by over 100 retailers worldwide, including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Amazon Luxury Stores and Nordstrom.
But Forte says the future still seems like “a huge mountain to climb”, especially in the ultra competitive luxury cosmetics market, which is projected to be worth $87bn (£67bn) by 2028.
“The challenge now is to really scale and scale quickly – nothing’s ever fast enough,” Forte says.
Having secured investment from L Catterton, the world’s most prestigious consumer fund backed by LVMH and Arnault Group, it’s far from what she sees as the last.
… So always look forward
Alive to the challenges ahead, Forte says it is important for her to stay focused and keep looking forward.
“You have to be very resilient, and I know it sounds silly because I’m a privileged person, but you get a lot of knocks along the way and it’s never going to be perfect and there’s going to be challenges every day,” she adds.
The US is now one of Irene Forte Skincare’s biggest markets and her plan is to expand the company’s international presence in a bid to dominate the luxury skincare market.
“Now I sit alongside all the big brands in the retail space… How do I compete? How do I take market share? … The bar is always higher.”