The Courtin family goes from beauty to luxury hotels as they make a bid towards a new high-stake investment, leading to an acquisition. The Courtin family’s investment company, Famille C Participations, has invested €130 million (approximately USD 141 million) in Pierre Bastid’s hotel business, Evok Collection, as a wager on expanding wellness-focused luxury hotels. The potential acquisition in the stake of the French family-owned hotel group sees the Courtin family holding company make a strategic play to diversify the company’s portfolio which currently includes ownership over skincare brand Clarins.
The Courtin-Clarins family are the founders of the upscale cosmetics brand Groupe Clarins, who owns the private investment entity called Famille C Participations. Christian Courtin-Clarins and his brother Olivier Courtin-Clarins, sons of Clarins founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins, started the company in 2017. Famille C Participations provides financial resources and strategic expertise for minority investments in small-to-medium-sized European enterprises in the beauty, wellness, and sustainable development sectors. As it stands, Famille C also have investments in Ilia Beauty, Ceremonia, Pai Skincare, and Joone, as well as tech companies including Launchmetrics.
In a press statement, Famille C reinforced its focus on investing in hotel companies that “create unique experiences focused on well-being”. Redefining luxury hotel standards by developing new lifestyles and travel experiences is exactly what the three co-founders of Evok had set out to do. Pierre Bastid, Romain Yzerman and general manager Emmanuel Sauvage created and built Evok in 2014, presenting a space of distinctive modern interpretation of European culture and a relaxed way of life amid an urban cosmopolitan city. The concept was to create a luxury service that would also provide unique experiences for the residents of the hotels and the communities around them.
The strategic investment further unites the world of beauty and well-being in an embodiment of Famille C’s vision of the “French art of living”. “The desire to innovate and modernise the luxury hotel industry is one of the keys to Evok’s success and one of the reasons for our partnership,” explains Prisca Courtin, general manager of Famille C Participations.
Together, Famille C and Evok Collection intend to expand their vision for luxury lodging, with a goal of 15 properties comprising of current hotels and upcoming outposts in the next five years. Evok Collection already has six such venues in Paris and Venice, and two more hotels in Madrid and Rome will soon open.
In a joint statement the two companies stated, “With this investment, Famille C Participations is implementing the strategy led by Prisca Courtin and her teams, naturally expanding its business into hotel experiences where well-being is central.” Emmanuel Sauvage, managing director of Evok Collection explained, “This is a new stage for Evok Collection. United by a common vision, I’m looking forward to continuing to write the Evok story together. I’m convinced that this collaboration with the Famille C Participations team will lead us to new successes.”
The strategic investment comes at a time of growing trends in wellness and hospitality-related tourism. The convergence of the beauty and wellness industry goes hand in hand with delivering personalised brand experiences to customers. According to McKinsey & Co, the wellness market is worth USD 1.8 trillion in 2024. The health and beauty Industries are rapidly evolving with wellness retreats like Evok looking to serve their customers by ingratiating the best skincare products available like Clarins on the market.
