Sue Nabi
Analyst · Evercore
Robert, thank you very much for giving me again the opportunity to speak about this important topic. So let me start with the first question, which is around how this is going to impact Coty's portfolio. So with the public announcement that the Gucci license will no longer be part of our portfolio after its expiry, as you can imagine, the focus of Coty for the next several years will be on, number one, we will be overdriving the brands with the biggest long-term growth potential. Number two, we will be building, and I should even say, amplifying the new licenses and brands we have recently added to Coty's portfolio. And number three, in parallel, we will optimize the Gucci brand during its remaining term, while, of course, fully respecting and operating within all of its term. In fact, and it's important for me to have the occasion to say this, the uncertainty over the last few years around the fate of the Gucci license resulting from the public comments of the licensor were a challenge for the Coty organization and the Coty reputation, including whether to build the brand in a strategic or a tactical way and also its role in our overall portfolio. And now as there is full clarity on the brand direction, we now have a fantastic opportunity to grow the rest of the portfolio with a bigger sense of focus especially on the ultra-luxury part of the business with a comprehensive portfolio of ultra-premium brands. I'm thinking about Atelier des Fleurs from Chloé. I'm thinking about Burberry Signatures, Jil Sander Collection, [ Infiniment Coty ] Collection and upcoming Etro and Marni collections. So even without the Gucci license, it's important to state that we remain firmly in the top 3 for total global fragrances and for prestige fragrances. And with this clarity on the fate of Gucci now, we will work to optimize the brand in a more tactical way until the last day of the license while focusing on accelerating the rest of our portfolio. As a reminder, and you have seen it probably in our prepared remarks, we have already grown some of our biggest brands at a fantastic pace in the last 5 years. Burberry by 140%, Hugo Boss by 33%, Chloe by 70%, Marc Jacobs by 50%, and we can now focus even more on further expanding these brands while in parallel building our next stars with brands like Swarovski, just like we have built Gucci. You may recall that we grew Gucci by 60% over the same period at constant currencies. Now I would like to take this opportunity, Robert, if you allow me, to stress that some of the delusional media rumors from recent months about Coty potentially exploring the sale of some of our key fragrances are categorically false. May I repeat, categorically false. We are committed more than ever to solidifying our position as a prestige beauty company with an emphasis on fragrance and scenting across price points with cosmetics and skin care best-in-class capabilities. And as you can imagine, our long-term fragrance brands are the backbone of this strategy. Now moving to the second part, which is a very important also question, which is around the impact of these events on the licensing model. I think that we can say that everything that happened confirms that the winners in beauty have been and will remain specialty beauty players like Coty. In housing, beauty remains incredibly complex incredibly costly for non-beauty players, which reinforces the appeal of the licensing model. May I remember -- remind everyone about why this licensing model is really a stronger model. It offers strong return on investment with no material upfront license or renewal costs, while established brand equity increases the probability of success and of payers. Again, a successful licensing business depends on portfolio diversification and on minimizing the license duration risk. In recent years, as you have seen, we have proactively renewed and significantly extended many key licenses, including Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs, adidas, Davidoff and all these for an additional 15 years plus. So today, I would say that 85% of our portfolio is either an owned brand, a perpetual license, which we view like an own brand or a license with very long-term remaining duration of more than 7 years, 85% again. So for our core beauty portfolio, it remains also a very long term in terms of nature with approximately 80% of the brands either being owned or under long-term license. We also have been very prudent, as I said it for many years now, that no single brand in our portfolio accounts for more than approximately 10% of our sales. Now I'm going to answer the last part of your question, which is around an early exit from the license. So again, there is no change to Coty's existing license on our ability to operate the Gucci Beauty license. All contractual rights remain in place and continue as agreed. Coty will continue to manage and operate Gucci Beauty under the same structure already in motion. And overall, we continue to solve this amicably with Kering. Last part of your question, which is around a potential deal. As you can imagine, we are always open to evaluate any proposal if and only if this creates real value for the company.