The founder
MEET FRANCISCO
Biography
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After studying law and later psychology, Francisco began his professional career in the family business of real estate.
In the golden years of growth of real estate in the early 2000s, Francisco made the leap to a large multinational in the field of luxury construction materials.
During those years, he had the opportunity to meet great families of Spanish high society, being one of those families the well-known Monegal saga, perfumers in their 4th generation.
One day, the Monegals knocked on Francisco's door and proposed him the challenge of creating their new luxury perfume brand, to which Francisco accepted delightedly. He had always been an inveterate lover of perfumes and that challenge, in a field totally unknown to him, was in fact the beginning of a precious life adventure.
In less than 3 years, the Monegal brand entered more than 40 countries and reached more than 150 luxury retailers around the world, including bespoke editions for retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Harrods or Bloomingdale's Dubai, the Mandarin Oriental hotel chain and more.
Throughout those years, Francisco fell in love with the world of haute perfumery, with the pleasure of working with different cultures, with the luck of making good friends all over the world. Beyond business, Francisco had found a way to merge his three passions, art, design and perfumery, so he decided to dive fully into the fragrance world.
After that enriching stage, Francisco led other Spanish niche brands with great achievements and milestones, such as working hand in hand in 2017 with the Kennedy family in the creation of a special edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Bob Kennedy.
Part of the revenues from that special edition went to Foundation RFK Human Rights, which gave the project not only a business perspective, but also a humanitarian and transcendent purpose.
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A few years later, Francisco decided to take a step forward in his career and materialize his experience, vision and ideas by creating Wilgermain, his very own brand.
Vision and values
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Francisco has always considered work as something important in people's lives, mainly because it is what occupies most of our day. For this reason, he has always granted great importance to a good atmosphere in the work environment.
In the same way that he really enjoys working with Rodrigo on our perfumes, Francisco also enjoys working with all of his collaborators and dear suppliers.
When creating Wilgermain, Francisco wanted not only to create a beautiful brand and attractive products, but also to found a company where good vibes and motivation of all the team were the most important thing. That was his vision for the company.
Regarding the brand and the perfumes, his vision was to create an accessible luxury brand, close to all cultures and all ages, attractive both for millennials and for mature consumers looking for a good perfume. The will was to create original and very qualitative fragrances but not very complex or difficult to understand.
And when it comes to Francisco’s values, everything we do at Wilgermain is honest, qualitative, fair and respectful to all our suppliers. We are highly committed to caring for the environment, using recycled and recyclable materials and partnering with Givaudan to create 100% of our products, being an active part of their SDGs.
Inspiration when creating Wilgermain
When creating Wilgemain, Francisco wanted to create a brand that had a personal component, but not as a main thing. He is not a person who needs prominence, or to be the center of attention, so, not being a trained perfumer, he did not want to give his name or surname to the brand.
Francisco is a person who loves art in all its forms of expression, a lover of history, design, beauty... so he thought of creating a brand along with great experts in the business, all of them directed by him, to obtain a beautiful and artistic brand that was consistent with his vision and values. However, he did want to give the brand a certain personal component to make it something with a reason for being; his vital experience after living in Paris and New York.
In the City of Light and the Big Apple, Francisco experienced two very different lifestyles and two different ways of understanding luxury. Years later, and already deep into the business, he also discovered the great differences between the French and American schools of perfumery, so he wanted to merge it all when creating the brand to obtain a mixture of contrasts; a classic yet modern brand, complex yet easy to understand, refined yet not boring or predictable.
And from that mix the name of the brand was also born, coming WIL- from Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where Francisco lived, and -GERMAIN from Saint Germain, the neighborhood in Paris where he also lived during his studies.
Living the dream
Today Wilgermain is a beautiful reality. Launched early 2022, the brand is present in 50 countries and prestigious doors, such as Saks 5th Avenue in NY, Breuninger in Germany, Bloomingdale's Dubai, Harvey Nichols Kuwait, La Rinascente in Rome or Harvey Nichols in England, to mention just a few.
Francisco and his team work hand in hand with all their clients and suppliers, travel around the world visiting their partners and points of sale, attend the most important fairs in the business and enjoy a dynamic day-to-day where creativity, design and fun are the true raw materials of this big dream called Wilgermain.
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