Oriflame's founding family bought it back off the market for SEK 12.9bn

Oriflame, founded in Stockholm in 1967 by the af Jochnick brothers, was one of Europe's first direct-selling beauty companies. For decades, its model worked: independent 'Brand Partners' sold skincare, cosmetics, and fragrances door-to-door and through personal networks, earning commissions on recruitment and sales. At its peak, Oriflame operated in over 60 countries with more than 3 million Brand Partners and revenue exceeding €1.3 billion.

The direct-selling model eroded as e-commerce and social media changed how people bought beauty products. Oriflame's competitors — Sephora, Ulta, and direct-to-consumer brands — offered the same products without the recruitment overhead. Oriflame tried to pivot online, but the Brand Partner model was structurally unsuited to digital commerce: the value proposition was personal relationships, not convenience.

On 22 May 2019 Walnut Bidco, owned by the founding families and already holding 30.82% of the company, offered SEK 227 a share in cash — a 34.8% premium, valuing the equity at SEK 12.85 billion. The independent bid committee's recommendation is unusually plain about why it accepted: it did not think the offer reflected the company's full intrinsic value, but it was "not confident in assuming that the current negative growth trend will turn positive in the near future," and judged that the long-term upside did not outweigh the near-term risk of refusing. Trading ended on 17 July 2019.