I'll have Olga introduce herself, and then we can dive into some of the Q&A.
Sure. Thank you, and thank you everyone, for having us here. Really great to participate in this event and for a great cause, and obviously get the Coty message out there as well. So I'm Olga Levinzon. I have been at Coty for the last 10 years, so it's been quite a while, through a very exciting journey for the company. So for those of you who don't know Coty, we are a pure-play beauty company, about $5.5 billion in revenues, and we have a portfolio of beautiful brands. You know, starting at the very high end from brands like Burberry Beauty, Gucci, Chloé, Marc Jacobs, to more mass-oriented brands like CoverGirl and Sally Hansen, Philosophy. So really across categories, across channels, across markets, very broad-based.
I lead investor relations at Coty, and prior to that, I was actually on Wall Street, equity research, covering a completely different sector, so very niche parts of tech. So I would say beauty is much more fun, much more tangible, and I love the products.
It's awesome. Thank you, and Olga, if you wouldn't mind, just to set the stage a bit, to just provide a little bit more on the history of Coty. I was surprised, like, Coty's been around longer than Walmart. So, it'd be great to just get a little bit of a snapshot, and then we can go into some further questions.
Sure. So in fact, next year, we're gonna be celebrating our 120th anniversary. So Coty was actually started by François Coty in Paris, France, and he basically revolutionized the fragrance industry. So up until this point, you know, up until that point, fragrances were really custom-made, very expensive, sold in pharmacies, and he basically brought it more to the masses in department stores with these custom scents and beautiful bottles. And really, that's the heritage of Coty. It's really in our DNA. You know, prestige fragrances are still over 50% of our sales, so it's something that we do incredibly well and are the experts in the industry. But just to give a sense of where we play and, you know, kind of some of the brands, and I mentioned some of that. So we are a pure-play beauty company.
You know, if you look globally, beauty is a $400 billion industry and, you know, historically has grown, you know, kind of 4%-5%, so really attractive. It's an industry that's pretty recession resilient. Nothing is recession-proof, but it really withstands the test of, you know, different economic cycles because at the end of the day, it's a really emotional category. Consumers want to use beauty products, you know. It's an affordable luxury. It's something that plays into their well-being, so it's a very psychological in that sense. And so it's a great space to play in and to compete in. If we look at kind of our portfolio, you know, a little over half of our business is prestige fragrances, and I mentioned some of the brands like Burberry, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Marc Jacobs.
About a quarter of our portfolio is in color cosmetics brands. So, you know, brands that many people know, CoverGirl, Sally Hansen, Rimmel. We have also some skincare brands, which is a small part of our portfolio, but a really great growth opportunity for us, so for brands like Lancaster and Philosophy, and as part of all of it, we've continued to premiumize our portfolio. So I think if you looked at, you know, pre-COVID levels, you know, we, our prestige business was a little over 50% of our business, but we've been steadily expanding that. We see it as a really great opportunity, both in terms of what consumers want. It's obviously very profitable as well, and so the trend towards, you know, premiumization is continuing, and we're benefiting from that. You know, we're also a very geographically diverse business.
Obviously, you know, we're here in New York, so everyone knows our, you know, U.S. presence, but the U.S. is about a third of our business, and you know, Europe is about, you know, a quarter of our business, and then we have a big presence in kind of Middle East, Africa, which we're building up. We have a big, you know, presence in Latin America. Really great business in Brazil with a lot of local brands that are very well known to Brazilian consumers. Not yet very well known globally, but, you know, great business. We're also growing in Asia and in China, which is another, you know, great growth opportunity for us.
And then I think maybe just to summarize in terms of the financials, you know, not to go too much into the details, into the numbers, but it is important in assessing the stock. But, you know, we've had a great momentum over the last few years. You know, we've grown our sales by, you know, 13%-14% on average. We've grown our margins by 400 basis points, so, you know, by 4%. We've, you know, our EPS has grown by 8 times in that timeframe, and, you know, our commitment and what we are targeting is continued growth across sales, across margins, across profits, and across cash flow, so.
Awesome. Well, as Olga said, Coty is one of the few, like, pure-play beauty companies, and one of the big differentiator, differentiators is the end-to-end supply chain capabilities. So could you comment a little bit about that and how, you know, it really helps you compete in the market?
Yeah, and I think that's, you know, going back to the fact that we, you know, our roots go back 120 years. We've really developed these end-to-end capabilities, and I think that's kind of a key differentiator versus some of the upstart brands that, you know, you hear about, and some of them, you know, rise, and then they fall. And some of that comes back to what are their core capabilities and how do they withstand the test of time and really continue to, you know, get the brand out there, connect with consumers. So at Coty, we have, you know, we do things end to end. So we have great R&D capabilities across fragrances, cosmetics, skincare, a great portfolio of patents around that, and technologies that we continue to develop.
We have great consumer insight, so really doing that market research and working with, you know, the likes of Carrie, who was just talking, but many other to really understand what consumers in different regions want, what are they looking for, you know, what kind of products we should develop, you know, what sort of features, what sort of technologies. So really, that consumer and market insight is very key. We have eight manufacturing plants around the world. We produce the vast majority of our products in-house, so we're not outsourcing, so we're really responsible for the quality of the products, the quality assurance, being able to get things to on shelf on time, obviously very key. We distribute our products, you know, we basically produce over 500,000 orders annually.
We supply over 120 different markets around the world. We're in 100,000 doors globally. So really, the scale of our distribution, of our manufacturing is really, you know, top-notch. In fact, you know, speaking kind of the root of our company, which is really fragrances, we have the largest fragrance manufacturing plant in the world. You know, we have a plant in Barcelona, where we produce over 1 billion units annually. So really kind of phenomenal end-to-end scale and capabilities.
So as I look at your portfolio, it's fairly, it's very diverse across categories, but also across price point, right? You have prestige products, mass products, and when you think about cosmetics, you had said, you know, it's a relatively resilient category. There's, you know, obviously there's this, Lipstick Index that has been coined, as you look at previous macroeconomic cycles. But are you starting to see any sort of, like, shift in, like, consumer sentiment? Are you seeing trade down? How would you describe the pulse of the consumer today?
I mean, it's interesting. I think if you kind of look at the overall consumer landscape and different, you know, consumer products, you know, in many cases, there's been pressure, there's been talks of trade down, of consumer saving. I think the interesting part of beauty, and it goes to kind of this emotional connection that beauty has, and the emotional investment that consumers have with beauty, is that they're not trading down. So we continue to see our prestige business, which I mentioned is over 60% of our business. That continues to grow significantly quicker than our mass business. Within prestige, we continue to see consumers trading up, so fragrances have been on fire for the last 3 years. You know, we don't really see that slowing, but within that, consumers are actually wanting the more premium products.
They want, you know, the fragrances that last, and so they're going from eau de toilette to eau de parfum, to elixirs. So in fact, there's kind of a trade up instead of a trade down. And same point on, you know, when we look at the data around mass cosmetics as well. So, you know, consumers are seeing products trending on their TikTok feeds, and they want those products that offer new benefits, and in fact, it's causing them to trade up. You know, when we look at the data across, across all geographic markets, we really see that the upper price points are actually the ones growing the fastest. So I think within this category, it speaks to, you know, when you introduce a compelling product and a comp...
You know, and a compelling design, and it's something, it's an object of desire, and it's cool, you know, consumers want to buy it, and they're willing to pay for it.
Awesome. Now let's talk a little bit about the younger Gen Z, millennial consumer. I think that, you know, within cosmetics in particular, oftentimes, like, that consumer can be a little bit more fickle. A lot of that is driven by just a surge of new entrants in the space. The barriers to entry in cosmetics are lower than they were a decade ago, right? You can use contract manufacturers, you can directly distribute, you can also, like, advertise on social media. So Olga, what do you, like, how are you seeing loyalty amongst that younger demographic? And also, like, what is your strategy on social media? Has it evolved? How are you using TikTok?
Yeah. So I would say maybe starting with the first part of the question around new brands, loyalty has a, you know, has proliferated more. I would say if you've seen barriers, to some extent, barriers to entry in cosmetics have come down because, yes, you can use a third-party manufacturer, you can kind of bypass traditional retail, go immediately on e-commerce, you know, get viral products going. But what we often see is many of those brands fizzle. So they have a product that works, there's kind of a big pop, and then it's hard to really maintain that momentum, again, because they don't have, like, those end-to-end capabilities. And also, I think if you are kind of the whole D2C model, where you're just online, it's becoming more and more difficult and more expensive to sustain.
So, you know, traditional retail, being present in the Ultas and the Walmarts and the Targets, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, that's, you know, Sephora, that's very critical, and you need to be able to afford that. And so I think for a company like Coty, that's become a key differentiator versus many of these brands, and it's just incumbent upon us to maintain the relevancy of the brands. And that kind of takes to the second part of your question around the influencer strategy. So clearly, consumers, younger consumers, but increasingly older consumers, you know, they're going, you know, social media, TikTok, you know, to a lesser extent, Instagram is a way where they are discovering brands, where they're engaging with content. This is how they learn about new techniques, new products, where they learn about the ingredients, best way to apply things.
It's a source of inspiration, and this is definitely the area that we're leaning into, across our portfolio, but including in our cosmetics brands. So, you know, in the last year, we have significantly scaled how we engage with influencers. In fact, you know, we've started opening up influencer studios in our own offices. So our U.S. headquarters are in the Empire State Building. We've actually opened up an influencer studio there, where we invite up-and-coming influencers. They have access to top-notch cameras, video, they can edit their content, they can learn about the products, so they can, you know, post and talk about our brands in an authentic way. And so we're scaling that across different countries. We're collaborating with them on actually co-creating products.
So we just started that with our Rimmel brand, which is smaller here, but it's much bigger in Europe. It's a, you know, top of selling, you know, it's the, the biggest cosmetics, mass cosmetics brand in the UK, for example. And literally, we have a Rimmel Creator Crew, where we've, you know, kind of identified them, and they're co-creating products with us and inspiring ideas around what we should launch next. So this is definitely the area, you know, that we're really leaning into, and also for any new launches, really kind of significantly scaling how we reach out to influencers. So if a year ago, maybe when we were launching a product under CoverGirl, for example, we would engage with 100 influencers, you know, to kind of send them product, get them to try it out.
You know, we have a new exciting launch coming out under CoverGirl, in early calendar 2024. We're engaging with over 5,000 influencers around that. So that's really the way to connect with consumers, and to really get authentic content from big influencers and from micro influencers, really across the gamut.
Awesome. And, you know, the other shift is just, like, really in the consumer, the end consumer. And there are certain things that, like, it's a much more demanding consumer today, right? In terms of ingredients, radical transparency, efficacy of products, and so to what extent has, like, the end consumer, like, helped, like, drive the shift within the organization as it relates to formulation or innovation?
Yeah, so, you know, kind of a focus on clean, on you know, on sustainability is a very key one. It's one of our key strategic pillars. So I would say, you know, we're really tackling it in a number of different ways. If I start with clean, this is an area that we were very clear that this is gonna be kind of a key trend within beauty, and particularly within cosmetics. And so, you know, I, many people don't know, but for CoverGirl, it was actually... We actually have a line under it for decades called Clean. It just meant something different several, you know, like a decade or, or two ago. It just meant, like, breathable formulas.
But this is an area that we own, that we really started, and so we've been ramping that up, with a lot of new launches, with kind of a sub-line called Clean Fresh. So, you know, the story is, you know, we were very clear that this is gonna be a key trend with consumers, starting with younger consumers, but now across the board. So we've been launching more and more products under this kind of clean umbrella across different brands. So it started with CoverGirl, but we've extended that to Rimmel, to Max Factor, to Bourjois, to Sally Hansen. So really across our, you know, kind of a, the plethora of our cosmetics brands, and that's the area, you know, those sub-lines are the ones that are growing the quickest.
I mean, I think our clean line under CoverGirl is growing, like, 30%, you know, for the past year, because this is what consumers want. But I think increasingly, they want that without compromising quality. I think that's really the key. And so for us, having, you know, developing these formulas internally, having our own R&D, this is where we're able to have more cleaner formulations, but making sure that, you know, you have a mascara that works, and you have a foundation that works, and you're not making a compromise on the product benefits just because you have a cleaner formula. And something kind of like, you know, on a kind of similar vein, is around our fragrance portfolio. So in the view around, again, moving more towards sustainability, how do we, like, lessen the environmental impact?
We basically worked with a startup called LanzaTech, and if you think about fragrances, actually, you know, the biggest component by volume within fragrances is ethanol. So alcohol that you mix the juice, the fragrance ingredients into. And what we've done is, a couple of years ago, we basically worked with this startup, who takes carbon emissions from factories and converts it into ethanol, and we've worked with them to get the ethanol to such a high degree that we can actually use it for our luxury fragrances. And we've been increasingly integrating this carbon-captured ethanol across our fragrance product line, and the volumes keep increasing around that. So clearly, like moving, taking different approaches across our business, but really moving in that direction.
Awesome. Well, can you, can you comment a bit about just your channel strategy? So, obviously, the brands are in mass, their brands are in specialty retailers, like Sephora, Ulta, but, more broadly, can you comment a bit about e-commerce and your, your strategy penetration there, as well as travel retail, which there's, you know, there, there's, you know, some noise around, as it relates to some of your competitors?
Yep. So on e-commerce, that's obviously a big factor for everyone. This is something that we're very focused on. So our e-commerce business is now close to 20% of our overall sales, growing very quickly. So in the quarter that we just reported, our e-commerce sales were up 25%, and that was the case in both our prestige business and in our mass business. So this is a key focus for us, and there, we really work with, you know, retail.com. So if you think about ordering products on Ulta.com or Sephora.com or Macy's or Walmart.com, but also, you know, pure play e-retailers, whether that's Amazon, that's a key one that we work with across different markets, not just in the US. And then even Chinese players like JD.com, Tmall, increasingly doing.
So a big focus on really building out that strategy. Then somewhat smaller for us, but we're focusing on ramping that up, is also the D2C presence. So, you know, for, you know, many of the beauty users out there, you probably, you know, probably one of our brands is actually Kylie Cosmetics or Kylie Beauty. So obviously, the D2C part of that is huge. You know, she is kind of big all over social media, so that's a great way to get the brand awareness, to have new product launches. On Travel Retail, great channel.
You know, if you think about, you know, particularly, you know, consumers who, wherever they are, they may not have, you know, stores around them where they can access the products, but they go to, you know, they want to travel, they go to an airport, and it's an amazing... You're there for two hours because you're waiting for your flight. It's a great way to engage and discover brands and try out products, learn about the brand, learn about what it's about, what are the core SKUs. So it's a great channel for us. It's a little less than 10% of our business, growing incredibly quickly. We've now surpassed where it was pre-COVID, and a lot more to come, because for us, you know, pre-COVID, a lot of our travel retail business was really fragrances.
Now we've expanded the assortment to now include cosmetics and soon skincare, ultra-premium fragrances. So really, you know, great momentum in recent years, but a lot more to go.
Now let's, like, shift gears a little bit and talk a bit about Sue. I mean, Sue Nabi is one of, one of the few public company CEOs, female, very diverse. And so can you comment a little bit about the shift that you've seen within the organization? You've been there for 10 years. Under her leadership, her values, how it has, you know, the impact she's had over on the, on the company as a whole.
Yeah, exactly. I think it's been a tremendous shift within Coty since Sue came on board. Having been with the company for the last 10 years, actually, you know, we IPO'd about 10 years ago, so I joined right after we IPO'd. For a long period of time, a lot of our company executives, including our CEOs, they came tremendous business leaders, but really came from consumer-oriented companies, but did not have that beauty background. I think beauty, it shares a lot of commonalities with different consumer categories, but there's so much unique about beauty, so many complexities. So Sue was our first CEO in the last 10 years that had this tremendous background in beauty. She spent several decades at L'Oréal, leading some of their biggest brands, L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme.
She left L'Oréal and started up her own ultra-premium skincare brand called Orveda. And then she joined Coty and has brought this tremendous expertise. So now, if you look at our executive committee, our senior leaders, I mean, the common thread is everybody comes with a you know, very extensive beauty background from the leading beauty companies, and I think it shows. And so we've set a very clear strategy around what we want to do, around how we accelerate the business, and we've been consistently delivering on that strategy or surpassing what we've promised. And it really starts at the top, kind of that's been infused. And I think it energizes the organization as well, because there's clarity of what we want to do, how we're going to achieve it, and you see those, the results quarter after quarter, year after year.
Awesome. Last question on my end is just around what's on the horizon. What do you think are white spaces within the organization? What are you seeing as the key growth levers?
Yeah, and I think that's the really exciting part for Coty, is that we're very well established in certain areas, like prestige fragrances, like mass cosmetics, but there's so much white space opportunity within our portfolio. We have these great skincare brands, but it's still only, like, 5%-6% of our business. So, so much upside potential as we invest behind brands like Philosophy and Orveda and Lancaster. Tons of opportunity in ultra-premium fragrances to really think about these niche, you know, very sophisticated fragrances. And we've started taking some of our brands there, whether that's Chloé, Atelier des Fleurs or Gucci Alchemist's Garden, and a lot more to come.
In fact, in conjunction with our 120th anniversary next year, we're launching a new brand that we developed in-house called Infiniment Coty Paris, which goes back to François Coty, starting fragrances 120 years ago. So that's, you know, really kind of coming full circle, but in a completely new, elevated way. So look out for that. More to come. There's tons of white space opportunity in Latin America, because, as I mentioned, we have some really amazing local brands there, really great scale, but there, you know, there's so much potential to take some of our existing brands that are more global and bring them to Brazil and Latin America. So more to come there. We're building out our presence in China, where obviously brands like Gucci and Burberry and Hugo Boss really resonate, but we're still quite small relative to our peers.
That's all upside for us as well. And then looking in the medium term to some of the other emerging markets, whether that's India, parts of the Middle East. So again, that's the really exciting part about our portfolio, is that we have great capabilities, great brands, but so much untapped potential.
Awesome. I don't know if you want any questions from the audience?
Yeah, sure.
Okay, well, I think we have a little bit of time if there's any questions in the audience. I think a trend today is just offering a piece of career advice to those of us in the room. How they can, like to share?
Career advice. I mean, I think it's, I think one of the things that I learned, I wasn't, you know, at, at the time when I started in, on Wall Street and equity research, I think there was... For some reason, you know, there was a view that there's, like, a path that you follow and you go from this, from this to this. I think being open to new opportunities, you know, even when I was on, on the sell side, I kind of wasn't sure if, like, even though I, you know, worked a lot with investor relations, for the companies that I covered, I was like, "I'm not sure if that's really a career for me." This opportunity came along and, you know, ended up joining right after the company IPO'd, and I loved it.
So, I think kind of that openness to try new things, I mean, obviously doing your research before you jump into it, but I think that's kind of a, you know, I think probably a theme that you've heard across the board, just being open to something you may have never considered, but then the more you learn about it, the more interesting it becomes.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, everyone.