Coty

Coty Inc. is an American multinational beauty company founded in 1904 by François Coty. With its subsidiaries, it develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes fragrances, cosmetics, skin care, nail care, and both professional and retail hair care products. Coty owns around 40 brands as of 2024.

Coty is one of the world's largest beauty companies and the largest fragrance company, with $5.3 billion in revenue for the fiscal year 2022. Coty acquired 41 beauty brands from Procter & Gamble in 2016, becoming the global leader in fragrance, the second largest company for hair color and styling products, and the third largest company for color cosmetics. The company operates three divisions: Consumer Beauty, which focuses on body care, color cosmetics, fragrances, and hair coloring and styling products; Luxury, for luxury cosmetic, fragrance, and skin care products; and Professional Beauty, which services beauty salon and nail salon professionals. Coty's mission is to "celebrate and liberate the diversity of beauty".

The company has approximately 20,000 full-time employees in 46 countries, as of mid 2018. Coty's executive offices are located in London. The Consumer Beauty, Luxury and Professional Beauty divisions are headquartered in New York City, Paris and Geneva, respectively. Peter Harf is Coty's chairman. Pierre Laubies was Coty's CEO, but on June 1, 2020, he was replaced by Harf. Pierre-André Terisse was appointed chief financial officer in January 2019. In July 2020, it was announced that Sue Youcef Nabi will become the company's new chief executive officer. Nabi who has previously served as L'Oréal's executive, is slated to take over the position in September the same year.

JAB Holding Company is Coty's largest shareholder, as of September 13, 2024, JAB Group owns approximately 52% of Coty shares.

Coty owns approximately 40 brands, as of 2024, and has partnerships with various other brands, including:

Coty relaunched the CoverGirl and Clairol brands, including the Nice 'n Easy hair coloring product, in late 2017 and early 2018, respectively. The relaunches included new messaging and product development, with an emphasis on diversity. The company also relaunched Max Factor in 2018.

Coty was founded by François Coty in Paris in 1904. The brand's first fragrance, La Rose Jacqueminot, was launched the same year and was packaged in a bottle designed by Baccarat. L'Origan was launched in 1905; according to The Week, the perfume "started a sweeping trend throughout Paris" and was the first example of "a fine but affordable fragrance that would appeal both to the upper classes and to the less affluent, changing the way scents were sold forever". Following its early successes, Coty was able to open its first store in 1908 in Paris' Place Vendôme. Soon after, Coty began collaborating with French glass designer René Lalique to create custom fragrance bottles, labels, and other packaging materials, launching a new trend in mass-produced fragrance packaging. Coty also established a "Perfume City" in the suburbs of Paris during the early 1910s to handle administration and fragrance production; the site was an early business supporter of female employees and offered benefits including child care.

The company began its global expansion in the early 1910s, first in London and New York. Coty established U.S. headquarters at 714 Fifth Avenue in New York City, and commissioned Lalique to design pressed glass panels for the building's façade windows, which were installed in 1912. Coty remained headquartered in the building until 1941. The structure was later given landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission during the 1980s for its custom windows. Coty began selling other beauty products including face and body powders in the 1910s, and launched one of its most successful fragrances, Chypre, in 1917. The company's products gained more attention in the United States as World War I soldiers started returning from France with gifts for loved ones. During the 1920s, Coty launched more than fifteen new fragrances and expanded into Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. Coty, Inc. was formed in New York in 1922, and became a publicly traded company in 1925.