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PROCTER & GAMBLE Co. is planning to bring its ultra-prestige SK-II skincare brand to the U.S., according to executives familiar with the situation, in a bid to extend a trend-defying run that has seen the brand grow at double-digit rates in Asia and the U.K. despite the global economic downturn.
SK-II launched 20 years ago in Japan, and was developed, according to legend propagated by P&G, by a monk who discovered skin-rejuvenating "pitera" after noticing workers at a sake factory had unusually soft hands from the yeast used for fermentation. P&G acquired SK-II as part of Max Factor in 1991, and it caught the fancy both of former Chairman-CEO Durk Jager and current Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley, who formerly headed P&G's Asian business.
In the past decade, SK-II has grown at compound double-digit rates as it expanded into Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong. Since its UX launch, the...