The New York-headquartered cosmetics and perfume group announced on August 20 a 10% increase in sales for its staggered 2023/2024 financial year, even though its net profit was divided by 6.5 due to an unfavorable comparison basis.

Sales reached USD 6.1 billion (EUR 5.4 billion) driven by prestige products (+13%) and to a lesser extent by consumer products (+6%), according to a press release.

All regions generated high-single-digit to double-digit percentage reported net revenue growth in FY24. Americas net revenues rose 10% as reported. Growth in the region was driven by strong high-single-digit to double-digit percentage growth in Latin America, Canada and the Travel Retail channel. EMEA’s net revenues increased 11%, supported by growth across many European and African markets and the Travel Retail channel. Asia Pacific net revenues grew 9% was supported by double-digit percentage growth in Asia excluding China and the regional Travel Retail channel.

Unlike its major competitors – such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder – Coty is not impacted by the slowdown in the Chinese market. "For us, China is a small country that only represents 3 to 4% of our turnover," explained Laurent Mercier, the group’s financial director.

The prestige fragrance market continued to grow approximately 10% in FY2024, remaining one of the fastest growing beauty categories across many markets, including the U.S. and China. In this favorable backdrop, Coty’s prestige fragrance revenues outperformed and grew by a mid teens percentage in FY24, fueled by the growth of existing icons and innovations. Burberry Goddess, for instance, is Coty’s biggest fragrance launch ever and continues to be a global success, being the number one female fragrance innovation in FY24 in the U.S. Canada and Germany.

However, net profit fell to USD 76.2 million (vs. USD 495 million in the previous financial year), suffering from an unfavorable basis of comparison. A year earlier, profits had been inflated by the sale of the Lacoste license taken over by competitor Interparfums, and by the sale of shares in the Wella group.

The 2023/2024 net profit was also negatively impacted by the accounting effect linked to the fall in the group’s shares.

Looking ahead, Coty expects sales to grow by 6-8% on a like-for-like basis for fiscal year 2024-2025. This would mark a slight slowdown compared to the previous financial year, when like-for-like sales increased by 11%.

“We are confident in delivering another year of growth in line with our medium-term targets,” commented Coty’s CEO, Sue Nabi.