Maesa Group's Scott Oshry on why retail isn't dead: 'Newness drives sales'

Scott Oshry didn't get into the beauty industry because of a life-long love of cosmetics or hair care. He, alongside his college friend Sean Brosmith, created the CD storage sleeve in the early 90s, which solved a basic need through design. Still, as he put it on the Glossy Beauty Podcast, that experience of making a suite of successful products informed Oshry's work as partner and CMO of beauty brand incubator Maesa. Though Maesa has been in business for 25 years and helped build private label lines for Target, Zara and H&M, largely in the fragrance category, it has shifted its focus to get companies like Flower Beauty, Hairtage by Mindy McKnight, Kristin Ess and Believe Beauty off the ground. Before starting Flower Beauty with Drew Barrymore, for instance, Oshry recalled the moment when he realized that "instead of building up other people's brands, we should be building up our own." In this way, Maesa went from a hit-maker behind the scenes to one that has just started to flaunt its prowess publicly -- a majority stake from Bain Capital in 2019 certainly helped. "We're a 25-year-old company, so we've constantly been growing," Oshry said. "We grew at about 50% just domestically last year, and we'll grow another 60% domestically this year," he added. In 2020, Maesa expects to reach $310 million in revenue.