Colgate paid €1.5B for Filorga — then shut its China flagship 6 years later

Filorga, a French cosmeceutical brand founded in 1978 by Dr. Michel Tordjman, entered China in 2015 and was an instant success. Its star product, the 'Ten Complete Tonic' mask, became the top-selling mask on Tmall. Revenue grew 26-fold in its first three years, annual sales surged 148% in 2018, and on Double 11 that year the brand exceeded ¥100 million in Tmall sales alone.

In July 2019, Colgate-Palmolive acquired Filorga for €1.495 billion (about ¥12.2 billion), betting that premium cosmeceuticals would drive growth in Asia. But the acquisition coincided with Filorga's China peak. The brand's high ¥599 list price was eroded by frequent deep discounts on Tmall promotions, undermining its premium positioning. Meanwhile, Chinese domestic beauty brands captured the Douyin and Xiaohongshu channels where Filorga had no native live-streaming capability.

By 2025, Filorga's China momentum was gone. Its Douyin sales had fallen to ¥2.5–5 million monthly. Parent company Colgate, facing an Asia-Pacific sales decline of 2.13% in H1 2025, launched a three-year productivity plan that targeted non-core brands. In January 2026, Filorga announced its Tmall flagship store — with 3.03 million followers — would close on January 31. Offline counters had already been shut and the WeChat mini-program was discontinued.