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Rituals Cosmetics Enterprise B.V.
Rituals sells bath, body, and home products like candles and shower gels, turning everyday routines into little moments of luxury.
Rituals is a cosmetics and home-fragrance company that sells things like shower gels, body creams, scented candles, and home perfumes. The idea behind it is simple and a bit clever: it takes boring daily habits — washing your hands, taking a shower, lighting a candle at dinner — and dresses them up as small, affordable luxuries. The products sit in the middle of the market, nicer than drugstore brands but far cheaper than high-end beauty counters, which makes them easy to buy on a whim.
Most of the money comes from its own stores. Rituals runs more than a thousand shops across Europe, with a big presence in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and France, and it now has hundreds in the US and Asia too. The shops themselves are part of the pitch: warm lighting, calm music, and staff who encourage you to try the products. The company also sells through its website and through department stores and travel retail — the airport shops where people browse while waiting for a flight. The business is privately held. Its founders, Raymond Cloosterman and his team, built it from a single Amsterdam store in 2000 into a brand with annual revenue of roughly €1.5 billion, and they have kept control rather than selling shares to the public. Being private lets it expand steadily — opening new stores, entering new countries — without answering to stock-market analysts every quarter. Its main competition is other mid-priced "affordable luxury" brands and the beauty giants, but Rituals leans on its store experience and gift-friendly packaging to stand apart. A large share of sales comes in the fourth quarter, because its boxed gift sets are popular presents around the holidays.
The money it makes mostly goes back into opening more stores and pushing into new markets, especially the US. That has been the engine of its growth: more shops means more people stumbling into the brand, and the shops pay for themselves fairly quickly. The company has also made its stores a bit of an experience — free tea, a "slow down" mood — which is cheap marketing and encourages people to linger and buy. The risk is that it is a crowded, fashion-sensitive business, and a brand that feels special today can feel ordinary tomorrow.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026