Coty Inc. has announced another quarter of improvement in its financial results and demonstrated recovery across its operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, ended June 30, 2021.
 
In Q4, revenues increased 89.6% to $1.06 billion compared to $560 million in 2020, lapping the peak of Covid impact in the prior year, even as Covid-related restrictions continued in many markets.
 
Coty ended the year with revenues of $4.63 billion, a decline of 2% as reported, while showing sequential improvement through the year
 
Geographic Segments
 
While all regions returned to YoY growth in Q4, the U.S. and China markets were standouts. The Americas region grew 67% in Q4 and 6% in FY21, with the full year performance driven by double-digit growth in U.S. prestige products, and growth in Brazil and Canada.
 
Asia Pacific grew 59% in Q4, with China growing double digits on a quarterly and full-year basis both year-on-year and versus FY19. EMEA sales more than doubled in Q4, even as many markets remained under restrictions through most of the quarter, with the consumer beauty brands recording stable market share for the first time in over 5 years.
 
Underpinning the global momentum was the continued strength in e-commerce, which grew nearly 19% in Q4 and 34% in FY21, resulting in a high-teens e-commerce penetration for the year.
 
Business Segments
 
Coty’s prestige brands sales more than doubled in Q4 and were nearly flat LFL in FY21, even as the company continued to reduce sales in low quality channels, which represented a low teens negative impact to prestige brand sales in Q4 and a high single digit negative impact in FY21, relative to FY19. Nearly all prestige brands were up double- to triple-digits, with standout performance from Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Calvin Klein, and Chloe, supplemented with expansion in Coty’s new growth engines, prestige cosmetics and skincare.
 
In the mass channel, Coty continued to strengthen its consumer beauty brands, reaching a key milestone with CoverGirl gaining market share for three consecutive months, a first for the brand in 5 years. Building on this momentum, Coty launched the new brand repositioning for Rimmel in June, followed by Max Factor in late July. Coty’s mass beauty revenues increased 37.9% LFL in Q4, with growth across each region.
 
Over the course of the year, Coty also advanced on its strategic pillar to become a beauty leader in sustainability. The company announced its partnership with Lanzatech, becoming the first company in the fragrance industry to introduce sustainable ethanol, created using carbon-capture technology, into its fragrance products with the goal of having the majority of its fragrance portfolio using carbon-captured ethanol by 2023.
 
“Today marks the completion of transformational year for Coty, as we advance on our journey in strengthening Coty’s position as a global beauty powerhouse,” commented Sue Y. Nabi, Coty’s CEO. “Over the last 12 months, we have built a leadership team of beauty and transformation experts, unveiled and began executing on our multi-year strategy, completed the divestiture Wella, significantly improved our leverage profile, and over-delivered on our savings, revenue, and profit objectives.”
 
Entering 1Q22, Coty continues to see fragrance market momentum in U.S. and China, with some signs of recovery in EMEA and in broader color cosmetics. The combination of this market backdrop and Coty’s strong launch calendar are fueling strong sales momentum in 1Q22, with very strong double-digit growth in July and August to date. As a result, Coty expects 1Q22 LFL sales growth in the high teens percentage.