nyse coty industry beauty founded 1904 in paris france headquarters new york city united states key people bart becht chairman & interim ceo products fragrance cosmetics skin care revenue us 4.5 billion 2015 owner jab holding company berkshire partners rh ne group number of employees 12 000 worldwide website coty.com coty inc. is an american beauty products manufacturer based in new york founded in paris france by fran ois coty in 1904 . its main products are fragrances color cosmetics and skin and body care products . 1 it is known for its cooperation with designers and celebrities for the creation of fragrances . 2 its biggest brands or power brands as it calls them are calvin klein fragrance and cosmetics chloe fragrance davidoff fragrance y fragrance marc jacobs fragrance philosophy beauty adidas fragrance and beauty playboy fragrance opi products beauty rimmel london make up and sally hansen beauty . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 1930s 1940s and 1950s 1.2 1960s and 1970s 1.3 1990s 1.4 recent history 2 manufacturing 3 references 4 external links history edit 1930s 1940s and 1950s edit in 1904 fran ois coty founded coty in paris with a goal to revolutionize the fragrance industry . in 1912 coty opened subsidiaries in london and new york . coty inc. became a publicly traded company in 1925 and acquired a majority interest in the european coty companies in 1929 . during the great depression sales in the united states fell from us 50 million in 1929 to 3.5 million in 1933 . according to the new york times management compounded its mounting problems by slashing prices in a desperate effort to gain a mass market ... a near fatal move in a field in which prestige and the luxury symbol were vital . with world war ii imminent the foreign companies were folded into the newly created panama based coty international corporation in 1939 . the ownership remained the same and the two corporations had interlocking directorships . the ownership transferred from coty to his ex wife yvonne who had by then married leon cotnareanu . the management was taken over by the cotnareanu family and passed on to philip cotnareanu who changed his name to philip cortney over time . after the great depression philip secured bank financing to keep coty going and in one of his first decisions raised prices for the entire line . in spite of a long range program to double the company s retail business he cut off drugstores carrying coty products if they would not agree to provide display space of at least 16 feet in length for exclusive stocking of these goods . production lines were automated packaging restyled and new lines of goods added periodically including in 1955 a new toilet goods line for men named preferred stock . research laboratories were established in morris plains new jersey and overseas . in 1946 coty s first postwar year sales nearly doubled from the 1941 total to us 19.1 million and net profit reached 1.24 million . 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 . the firm lost money in fiscal 1957 and 1958 with management blaming the results on the high cost of advertising which rose from 7 % to 16 % of sales in this period . moreover firms like revlon inc. which reaped huge publicity from its sponsorship of television s the 64 000 question seemed to be getting better results for the money . in fiscal 1962 coty had net income of only 386 985 on sales of 25.46 million . coty international had a profit of 319 331 on sales of 7.38 million . 1960s and 1970s edit coty and coty international were sold in 1963 to chas . pfizer & co. for about us 26 million and became divisions in the pharmaceuticals company s consumer products group . in 1965 coty introduced imprevu its first new perfume in 25 years . this became the leading coty fragrance by the end of 1968 . coty and coty international were united in 1973 . among the new products introduced in the early 1970s were the styx sweet earth and wild musk fragrances and the equatone beauty treatment line . the production facility was moved from new york city to sanford north carolina at this time . coty products were being marketed to franchised accounts including distributors independent drugstores mass merchandisers and department stores . 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 . 1990s edit coty was purchased in 1992 by benckiser consumer products the u.s. arm of a family owned german household products giant named joh . a. benckiser gmbh . 4 in 1993 benckiser merged into coty its quintessence inc. unit which it had acquired the previous year . coty inc. grew into a us 1.5 billion a year company in 1996 when benckiser made its lancaster group a coty division . the existing coty renamed coty beauty became the other division . lancaster founded in monaco in 1946 and acquired from smithkline beecham plc in 1990 . during the year of 1998 45 percent of the company s sales were in mass fragrances 24 percent in mass cosmetics and 31 percent in prestige market beauty products . fifty five percent of sales volume came from western europe and 30 percent from north america . recent history edit in may 2005 unilever announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to sell its global prestige fragrance business unilever cosmetics international uci to coty inc. of the united states . 5 however several major brands were sold to elizabeth arden . unilever reportedly received a consideration of us 800 million in cash at the closing with the opportunity for further deferred payments contingent upon future sales . the business included the perfume licenses for calvin klein cerruti vera wang chlo and lagerfeld as well as a manufacturing and distribution center in mount olive new jersey which was later closed in june 2007 as operations were transferred to the existing coty sanford north carolina facility . sales for the global prestige fragrance business for 2004 were in excess of 600 million 490m . in december 2007 coty announced the acquisition of dli holding corp. 6 the calgon and healing garden brands were purchased by ascendia brands on 9 february 2007 . 7 in august 2009 coty inc. announced that it had entered into a license agreement with global lifestyle brand guess inc. to develop and market new guess fragrance lines . as part of the partnership coty would also distribute existing guess fragrances effective january 2010 . 8 in november 2010 coty inc. announced that coty has entered into an agreement to acquire philosophy inc. from the carlyle group . 9 in early 2011 coty inc. announced that it had officially concluded the acquisitions of dr. scheller cosmetics 10 opi products inc. 11 and tjoy . 12 in july 2012 coty inc. appointed michele scannavini as the new ceo . scannavini has been president of coty prestige for the last 10 years . 13 coty inc. is no. 2 global position in fragrances no. 6 global position in color cosmetics and strong regional presence in skin & body care . coty inc. headquartered in new york city has more than 10 000 employees worldwide . on june 13 2013 coty inc. went public on the nyse . coty raised 1.0 billion in the largest consumer ipo since arcos dorados 1.3 billion ipo in 2011 . the company operates in three segments fragrances color cosmetics and skin and body care . 14 in june 2014 coty has discontinued tjoy . 15 on september 29 2014 michele scannavini had stepped down from the ceo position . 16 on july 9 2015 coty announced it had reached a definitive agreement to purchase some of procter & gamble s beauty brands for 12.5 billion in a deal that would more than double its sales and transform it into one of the world s largest cosmetics companies . 17 manufacturing edit coty s manufacturing facilities are located in ashford united kingdom ; granollers spain ; chartres france ; monaco ; jiangsu province china ; sanford north carolina los angeles california and phoenix arizona united states . 18 references edit nasdaq profile . nasdaq.com . retrieved 2013 11 04 . kate moss fragrance on the horizon rogue connect december 16 2006 coty website 1 2015 pfizer selling its coty unit to german company restructuring the divestiture will allow the pharmaceutical firm to focus on health care . . the los angeles times . may 5 1995 . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty to buy unilever s perfume business . may 21 2005 . the los angeles times . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty inc. and del laboratories inc. announce acquisition of del laboratories inc. by coty inc. . prnewswire . december 7 2007 . retrieved july 23 2015 . ascendia brands inc. agrees to acquire the healing garden and calgon from coty inc. . businesswire . january 18 2007 . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty inc. and guess inc. announce collaboration to develop and market new fragrance lines . prnewswire . august 13 2009 . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty agrees to buy philosophy skincare from carlyle . bloomberg . november 23 2010 . retrieved july 22 2015 . coty inc. announces acquisition of dr. scheller cosmetics ag . prnewswire . november 12 2010 . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty agrees to acquire nail polish maker opi products . bloomberg . november 29 2010 . retrieved july 23 2015 . coty pays 400 million to buy controlling stake in china s tjoy . bloomberg . december 12 2010 . retrieved july 23 2015 . michele scannavini coty prestige president is named company s new chief executive officer . prnewswire . july 25 2012 . retrieved july 22 2015 . coty makes its public debut . cnn money . june 13 2013 . retrieved july 22 2015 . coty pulls tjoy from china . forbes . june 5 2014 . retrieved july 22 2015 . coty ceo scannavini to step down becht to become interim chief . cnbc . september 29 2014 . retrieved july 22 2015 . p & g set to sell 12 billion worth of its beauty brands to coty . forbes . june 18 2015 . retrieved july 22 2015 . http www.coty.com company coty snapshot boorstin julia november 14 2005 . the scent of celebrity . fortune p. 37 40 . external links edit coty s official site v t e reckitt benckiser brands aerogard air wick amphyl bonjela brasso brio bryza calgon calgonit cattlemen s cherry blossom cillit bang clean & smooth clearasil cling free cobra colon coral d con dettol dip it disprin dosia durex easy off easy on elena finish frank s redhot french s gaviscon glassex glass plus harpic hoffmann s kalia intima de karinzi lanza lemsip lime a way lovela lysol masterpiece metalist mop & glo mortein mr. min mr sheen mucinex nenuco noxon nugget nurofen old english poliflor quanto resolve rid x robin sagrotan sani flush scholl senokot silvo sipuro strepsils vanish vani sol veet vivid wenol windolene wizard woolite yes people bart becht jeremiah colman rakesh kapoor isaac reckitt other coty inc. ssl international the garden village category v t e cosmetics face anti aging cream bb cream botulinum toxin botox concealer cleanser facial facial toning foundation moisturizer permanent makeup primer powder rouge skin whitening toner veil venetian ceruse lips gloss liner lipstick plumper stain eyes blepharoplasty circle contact lens eyelash extensions eyelid glue eye liner