Coty CEO Stresses Simplification as Part of Turnaround

Coty Inc. sales continued to slip in its fiscal third quarter, but new chief executive officer Pierre Laubies is creating a plan to hoist them up. Pierre Laubies  Courtesy “We must capitalize on the solid results of the Luxury and Professional Beauty divisions, and address the weakness of the Consumer Beauty division’s performance via shelf productivity, product range simplification and brand investment at scale. Those are the main priorities of the strategic plan that we are completing and which we will start deploying as soon as fiscal 2020,” Laubies said in a statement. He elaborated further on a call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday, noting that 60 percent of the Coty portfolio is performing “solidly” and problems are centered in the Consumer Beauty division, which houses Cover Girl, Clairol and Rimmel. After a few months of analyzing the portfolio — Laubies came into the role in November — he said the company believes it has “upside potential” by “optimizing what we currently sell, even without substantial innovation.” That comment prompted a question from BMO analyst Shannon Coyne, who asked Laubies about how he intended to compete in beauty without the substantial innovation “that the beauty consumer demands.” Laubies said he is still learning the beauty world,

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