F&F Group bets $100M on Korean fragrance brand Hetras after MLB Beauty stumbles
What's the deal? F&F Group — the South Korean fashion conglomerate behind the MLB streetwear brand — has acquired a 70% stake in SSUKSSUK, the company behind fast-growing Korean fragrance brand Hetras. The deal, worth roughly 154B Korean won ($100M), was executed through a consortium with Meritz Securities and Tigris Investment. F&F led the consortium as the largest investor, committing about $45M for a 60% share. It has also secured a call option to buy the remaining stake within a year.
Why now? F&F's own attempt at beauty — MLB Beauty, launched in 2022 — has underwhelmed. While MLB's fashion business exploded in China to nearly US$825M in annual sales across 1,100+ stores, its cosmetics line has languished in "lukewarm" territory for three years. Chinese consumers have openly criticised the products for poor quality and uninspired packaging that simply slaps the MLB logo onto generic formats.
Hetras, by contrast, is on a tear. Founded in 2022, it sells affordable lifestyle fragrances — perfumes, home scents, car diffusers, body care — priced between roughly $7 and $80. The brand's operator SSUKSSUK posted US$70.9M in 2025 revenue and US$20M in operating profit, up 120% and 146% year-on-year respectively. Celebrity endorsements, including a viral moment with K-pop star G-Dragon, have cemented its status as a "national fragrance" brand in Korea.
What could go wrong? Hetras's rapid growth has been built largely on Korean domestic demand and tourist traffic. Expanding internationally — it opened its first overseas store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay in December — is a different challenge. F&F's track record in beauty integration is also unproven: its earlier cosmetics subsidiary F&CO, which operates skincare brand Banila Co, hasn't demonstrated the kind of cross-pollination with the fashion business that might justify a premium valuation.
There's also the risk of cultural translation. Hetras's appeal is rooted in a distinctly Korean aesthetic — curated, gallery-like stores, muted packaging, mood-driven scent narratives. Replicating that in China or Southeast Asia without diluting the brand requires careful execution.
The signal: This acquisition reflects a broader pattern: fashion companies realising that brand heat in apparel doesn't automatically transfer to beauty. MLB Beauty's failure wasn't a marketing problem — it was a content problem. The brand moved its logo onto cosmetics without building the product credibility or storytelling that beauty consumers demand.
A new generation of Korean beauty brands is succeeding precisely because they treat products as "content objects" — items designed to be shared, styled, and storied. Hetras fits this mould, with its experiential retail spaces and emotionally coded product lines. For F&F, buying Hetras is an admission that building beauty capability in-house proved harder than expected — and that acquiring a proven narrative engine may be the faster path into the market.
Read more: jiemian.com
