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Premium Brand strategy

Pictet’s Premium Brand strategy: capitalising on brand excellence for 20 years

Active Equity 3 min read
Pictet's Premium Brands strategy, led by Caroline Reyl since its inception in 2005, focuses on capturing long-term consumer trends. It invests beyond traditional luxury sectors to include diverse premium brands with strong pricing power and high profitability.
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Premium brands represent a special case within the retail universe, occupying a unique place within the consumer market and enjoying a range of distinct advantages.

As part of the Premium Brand strategy’s approach, we seek out investment opportunities arising from long-term consumption and premiumisation trends across a wide range of segments ranging from travel to food and drinks. The result is a concentrated portfolio of high-conviction names with a focus on brand excellence and exclusivity.

  • ACCESSORIES

  • APPAREL

  • COSMETICS

  • FOOD & DRINKS

  • JEWELRY

  • PERFUME

  • TRAVEL

  • SPORTS

Premium Brands offer investors unique characteristics. Indeed, these companies propose differentiated products, with a strong experiential element and brand integrity. They typically benefit from strong consumer loyalty, high barriers to entry, pricing power and sustainable growth.

Our Premium Brands strategy is run by a team of dedicated investment managers who are responsible for both fundamental research and portfolio construction. Two of our current managers have been running the strategy together for the past 20 years.

In order to make sure their investment ideas are as robust as possible, they periodically meet with a dedicated advisory board of business leaders. This helps them stay ahead of the latest developments impacting the theme, such as new technologies or regulations.

Key differentiators for the Premium Brands strategy

Access to prestigious companies

High-end companies have a reputation for delivering outstanding quality. This typically helps them achieve strong market positions, powerful customer loyalty and consistent pricing power.

Benefit from increasing spending power in emerging markets

The strategy is global but with a European bias. Nonetheless, many of the companies within the portfolio benefit from the rising spending power of consumers in developing economies.

Personal luxury goods market (EUR bn) & Chinese consumers (%)

Source: Bain Altagamma (luxury market), Morgan Stanley Research (Chinese nationals estimates), January 2025

Resilience

Premium Brands companies tend to be better insulated than their consumer counterparts in times of economic slowdowns. This is because they have strong pricing power, well-capitalised balance sheets, and customers with relatively stable spending power, who tend to be sheltered from inflationary pressures.

What are the risks?

We believe that investing in active thematic equities offers attractive potential for investors. However, as with all investing, there are risks. For this reason, it’s important to find an experienced manager to navigate the field. The Premium Brands strategy offers no capital guarantee or asset protection measures. Past results offer no guarantee for the future. The value and income from an investment may rise or fall, and it is possible that investors will not recover their original investment.

Pictet Asset Management: a global leader in active thematic investing

Pictet’s Premium Brands strategy benefits from the resources of a global leader in active thematic investing, including 70+ portfolio managers and analysts, managing EUR 63bnPictet Asset Management, as at 31.12.2024across 17 strategies. It also benefits from the support of dedicated Thematic Advisory Boards made up of academics, business leaders and policy experts, who provide insights into long-term structural shifts as well as tactical understanding of short-term drivers affecting a specific industry or sector.

Footnote

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Important information

Marketing communication

The information and data presented in this document are not to be considered as an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or subscribe to any securities or financial instruments or services. The information used in the preparation of this document is based upon sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of those sources. Information, opinions and estimates contained in this document reflect a judgment at the original date of publication and are subject to change without notice. This material does not contain sufficient information to support an investment decision and it should not be relied upon by you in evaluating the merits of investing in any products or services offered or distributed by Pictet Asset Management. Pictet Asset Management has not ensured the suitability of the securities mentioned in this document for any specific investor, and it should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent judgment; investors are advised to determine the suitability of the investment based on their financial knowledge, experience, goals and situation, or to seek specific advice from an industry professional before making any investment decisions. Investors should read the prospectus or offering memorandum before investing in any Pictet managed funds. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change in the future. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.