Coty History

April 2 (Reuters) - Since its start in 1904, Coty Inc has grown through deals to become one of the world’s biggest cosmetics and perfume companies.

L'Origan by Coty c1905 L'Origan by Coty: launched in 1905.

By 1908 he was successful enough to establish a factory on the outskirts of Paris.

Coty was also quick to exploit foreign markets, opening a Moscow store and establishing a London subsidiary in 1910.

Coty established United States 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.

In 1922 Coty, Inc. was formed, with laboratories and a large assembly plant established on Manhattan's West Side to avoid the heavy tariff on luxury goods.

L'Aimant by Coty c1927 L'Aimant by Coty: launched in 1927.

By 1929 the American company was assembling and selling 23 perfumes, plus powders, toilet soaps and waters, bath salts, brilliantines, hair and hand lotions, rouges, vanishing cream, shaving soap, and powder and rouge compacts.

Coty's Air Spun face powder was launched in 1935.

1939: The five foreign Coty companies are reorganized in Coty International Corp.

The company lost money in 1947, however, and although it returned to profitability, sales stagnated.

Fiscal 1955 (the year ended June 30, 1955) was Coty's best postwar year, with net income of $1.61 million on sales of $22.76 million.

In fiscal 1962, Coty had net income of only $386,985 on sales of $25.46 million.

1963: Coty and Coty International are sold to Chas.

In 1965 Coty introduced Imprevu, its first new perfume in 25 years.

Introduced in 1967, Coty Originals offered a comprehensive collection of newly designed makeup products at popular prices.

In 1969 the division introduced the Bacchus line, a full collection of men's grooming aids, including aftershave lotion and cologne.

Results were not meeting expectations, however, for the subsidiary was reported to be on the block in 1974 for possibly as little as $20 million--less than Pfizer had paid a decade earlier.

The battle for display space remained intense, but in 1984 Coty won a promotional award for its point-of-purchase Image Awareness campaign in 11,000 drug and mass-merchandise stores.

In 1991, the company had annual sales of approximately $280 million.

1992: Coty is sold to Joh.

In 1993 Benckiser merged into Coty its Quintessence Inc. unit, which it had acquired the previous year.

Lancaster also introduced to Europe, in 1996, the leading Chinese cosmetics brand, named Yue-Sai for its developer, Yue-Sai Kan.

The hot new introductions of 1997 were The Healing Garden, a line of four herbal-based 'aromatherapy' fragrances that quickly developed into a collection of 34 stockkeeping units, and its first fragrance bath-and-body line, Calgon Body Mists.

In 1998 Coty added a five-item Minitherapy for Feet line as an extension of the aromatherapy concept, and Isabella Rossellini launched a new cosmetics collection called Manifesto.

In 1999 Coty introduced Adidas Moves, a men's fragrance, to the United States and was planning to add its line of soaps as well.

For 2000, Coty was planning to introduce a new mass-market perfume, Esprit, in 44 countries under a licensing agreement with apparel marketer Esprit de Corp.

2001: Bernd Beetz joins Coty as chief executive from LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, where he oversaw the Perfume and Cosmetics division.

2002 : Coty signs Jennifer Lopez and launches her first fragrance, Glow by JLO, which is a hit.

The company's revenue increased from $1.9 billion to $2.1 billion during 2004–2005. It purchased the fragrance license for fashion designer Marc Jacobs in 2003.

2005 : Coty says it will buy Unilever’s global prestige fragrance business for $800 million, acquiring brands including Calvin Klein, Cerruti, Vera Wang, Chloe and Lagerfeld.

2006: Coty Prestige is created to manage Coty’s premium brands.

2008: Coty sells Orajel and other over-the-counter drug brands to Church & Dwight Co for $380 million.

2009: Coty enters a license agreement with GUESS Inc to develop and market new GUESS fragrance lines.

2011: Private equity firms Berkshire Partners and Rhône announce minority equity investments in Coty Inc

Coty filed to go public in June 2012, and raised approximately $1 billion during its initial public offering (IPO) one year later.

The IPO, held in 2013, was the third largest in the US at the time and the largest by a final goods company since Michael Kors.

CNNMoney described the offering as the "largest United States-listed IPO for a consumer products company". Coty acquired Bourjois in 2014.

Younique had approximately 80,000 sellers when Coty purchased a 60 percent stake in January 2017, and surpassed 230,000 sellers by December.

Coty announced that it was cutting ties with Younique in August 2019, saying that Younique was "definitely different" from other businesses owned by Coty, and intended to sell its 60% stake in Younique back to its founders.

In June 2020, the company announced that will buy 20 per cent stake for $200 million in KKW, a company owned by Jenner's sister Kim Kardashian West.