Criterion: Home fragrance leader Dusk Group sniffs a wider audience in its turnaround quest

• Dusk Group wants to do more than sell candles and bath bombs to 30-something women
• The retailer is expanding aggressively into the ‘home and bath’ category
• Dusk has launched male-friendly products with earthier odours

Soon after he signed on as CEO of the country’s biggest home fragrances retailer, Dusk Group (ASX:DSK), two years ago Vlad Yakubson realised something didn’t smell right about the retailer’s focus on its customer base of 30-something females.

During the pandemic, business boomed as house-bound customers sought to make their premises as nice as possible.

After that, Dusk failed to “reignite the passion”.

With extensive experience in consumer discretionary roles, Yakubson has overseen a wide-ranging revamp as Dusk builds a younger audience – including males.

“There’s a growth opportunity in bringing in a new breed of Dusk loyalist and that points to a younger audience of the 18 to 25s,” he says.

Meanwhile, Dusk has expanded beyond diffusers and candles into the broader ‘bath and body’ category: personal care items such as hand and body washes, shampoo, lip glosses, body shimmers and body mists.

Bloking things up

“We are trying to move Dusk as not just a destination for gifting, but a lifestyle brand,” Yakubson says.

“We are trying to get customers to look to us more frequently throughout the year.”

Crucially in these straitened times, the average Dusk item now costs around $20, compared with around $50 for the traditional lines.

The difference is that customers are more likely to walk away with a $13 lip gloss and a $20 body shimmer.

Yakubson says Dusk’s research shows that half of its shoppers already are male.

So, while the “look and feel” of the stores has been female oriented, blokes felt comfortable visiting them.

The trouble is, they confined their visits to gift shopping around Mother’s Day, Valentines Day and Christmas.

In a ‘bloke things up’ initiative, Dusk launched a Father’s Day range of candle and room sprays, redolent of bushwalking or sitting on the beach.

“It was so successful we sold out in two weeks,” Yakubson says.

Dusk also has entered three product collaborations.

These have been with confectionary maker Allen’s (think of killer python scent), the Willy Wonka franchise (chocolate scented candles) and even HBO’s White Lotus series (the floral and spicy incense of an upmarket Thai resort).

“Suddenly we are attracting customers that never looked at Dusk,” Yakubson says.

More in store

Dusk has also opened two stores in a new format branded Afterglow, at Adelaide’s West Lakes and the Queen Victoria development in Sydney (the company’s first foray into a CBD presence).

Yakubson describes the stores as more “immersive”, with digital screens and subtle fixture tweaks that enable more “dwell time”.

The measure looks to be working, with the West Lakes store’s sales surging 50% in its early days.

“We have made the stores slightly bigger but have also moved from the home location in shopping centres to a lifestyle destination – right in the mix of the fashion brands,” he says.

“We are an impulse buy in the same way as buying clothing.”

Dusk has slightly expanded its store reach to 148 outlets but the company is also not afraid to close underperforming outlets (at a rate of three to four a year).

“Landlords have become more realistic but negotiations are as challenging as always and take longer”.

Smells good

Over three decades in retailing Yakubson held turnaround roles at Glue (then owned by Rebel Sport), Rag (menswear) and the Mad Mex takeaway chain.

“My passion has always been taking great businesses, reinventing them and supporting a cultural shift.”

Dusk is smelling good again, having reported an 8% jump in revenue for the year to June 30 2025, to $137 million.

The company dispensed a seven cents per share ordinary dividend.

For the first time in its five-year listed history, the company also rewarded investors with a five-cent special payout.

Yakubson says consumer sentiment was positive in the June half, although shoppers had a keen eye for value.

“July was not great but in in August we are just shy of 5% growth again,” he says.

While Dusk is an ‘orphan’ in ASX terms, rivals include The Body Shop and pharmacies.

“We are a mid-market brand,” he says.

“We’re not a Kmart. Our quality is as good as products double or triple the price.”

Despite the operating improvement, Dusk shares have fallen 25% over the last year.

At around 86 cents, the shares are well shy of their mid 2021 pandemic peak of $4.

The debt-free Dusk’s $53 million market cap is supported by cash of $20 million.

This report does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining financial advice before making any financial decisions.