Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Anna von Bayern. I'm the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer here at Coty, and I have the pleasure of welcoming you all to Coty Strategic Skincare Update. Very shortly, you will be hearing from our CEO, Sue Nabi, on how Coty's breakthrough science, coupled with our brand stories, really ideally position us to accelerate in skincare, to win in skincare, to increase our growth.
Afterwards, you will hear from Dr. Shimei Fan, our Chief Scientific Officer and leader in sustainability. She will take you behind the scenes of our most promising research. As you've all seen here today in the labs at our Center of Excellence for Skincare in Monaco, our skincare portfolio is so much more than the brands. It's really about science.
After Shimei Fan, our Chief Brands Officer for Prestige, Constantin Sklavenitis, will show you how our brand stories and the strategies really ideally position us to respond to shifting consumer demands worldwide. Then, of course, the question you all ask yourself, how does it all add up, right? Of course, our CFO, Laurent Mercier, is then here to give you all the numbers to all of the above, everything you heard before. Then we have time for a short Q&A. Without further ado, over to you, Sue Nabi.
Let's do it from here. Good morning. Good afternoon. We are very delighted to welcome you to our 2022 Skincare Strategy Update. Remember, less than a year ago, in November 2021, we unveiled our multi-year strategy to transform Coty into a true beauty powerhouse. Over the past year, we have continued to make progress and reach new milestones across each of our strategic and, of course, objectives.
Today, I, along with several member of my team, will deep dive into a central part of Coty's strategy, skincare. While in many ways our efforts in skincare are only now beginning to gain speed, I do want to leave you with a key message. Coty is already successful in skincare. Today, full day is concentrated on our 1/3 strategic pillar, building a skincare portfolio across both divisions with a focus on prestige today.
Before I delve into what gives Coty the right to win in skincare and how we will succeed, I think it's important to frame for you why skincare was not a priority for Coty in the past. Here, I truly believe that the backgrounds and the perspectives of prior Coty leadership teams were the main factor at play. Prior leadership teams were not familiar with skincare.
They did not have the right tools to assess the strength of Coty's IP in skincare, nor did they have the playbook to win in this very competitive category. Luckily, my background and that of the team I have assembled around me perfectly equip us today to unleash a winning skincare strategy at Coty.
We have taken the time over the past 2 years to objectively assess the strength of our IP, brands, capabilities, and the resources required to take our skincare business to the next level. Our conclusion is that Coty has what it takes to succeed in skincare, and there are multiple proof points which reinforce our commitment to accelerating our skincare business .
Let me take a moment to frame the opportunity for our company, which, as you can see it on the screen, is tremendous. The global prestige skincare market now stands at over $45 billion and has continued to grow at a high single-digit % as one of the most resilient beauty categories, and this since decades. The global mass skincare market is more than double the size of prestige skincare at over $100 billion and growing Mid-single digits %.
Given our unique brand portfolio, which covers the prestige and mass channels with distinct brands, we clearly have the right to play in the total skincare market, opening up a massive $150 billion opportunity for our company. Against this market backdrop, our ambition is simply to double our skincare sales from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2025, reaching $500 million-$600 million of skincare revenues by fiscal 2025 and of course, accelerating further in fiscal 2026 and beyond.
This will further diversify our portfolio into a high growth, high loyalty, high barrier to entry, and high margin area of the beauty market. On the one hand, doubling sales in 3 years' time is ambitious and by no means an easy fit, as we build out our global infrastructures, reinforce our pipeline of innovations, and transform our leading brands.
On the other hand, $500-$600 million in total sales is only a fraction of the annual turnover of some of the leading global skincare brands, showing that we want to be ambitious but also credible in the targets that we set. Let me take a moment to provide an overview of the skincare technologies, the know-how, and the organizational capabilities that will fuel our skincare acceleration.
What I want you to take away from today is that Coty's and capabilities that have and which we will fully unleash in the coming months and years. We have over, as you can see it on the screen, 50 years of development and expertise in UV and sun care protection.
We are the only company amongst the established beauty players with distinct and superior IP in what we call full light protection, which is critical as light from all sources is a leading cause of aging and skin damage. We also have over 20 years of research and breakthrough IP in DNA repair and antioxidant formulations.
In skincare market, where many active ingredients often cause irritation in a sizable portion of the population, think retinol, think vitamin C, to name a few, our distinct and superior IP around delivering active ingredients deeper into the skin layers without causing irritation becomes a competitive advantage for our skincare offering. Our R&D organization has continued to be active in the skincare field with over 50 active patents, over 85 published scientific studies, and over 880 innovations in the pipeline, which will fuel the business momentum of today and of tomorrow.
Finally, we've been actively building up our skincare organization across the company. We have strengthened our existing skincare expertise across R&D, global marketing, sales, and consumer research with new hires from the leading global skincare brands. We now have more or less 200 dedicated skincare expert at Coty across the various functions, and that number continues to grow. In fact, my Co-Ppresenters today come with extensive skincare expertise.
Shimei, our Chief Scientific Officer, brings more than 2 decades of skincare expertise across Shiseido, Beiersdorf, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever. Constantin, our Chief Prestige Brands Officer, also comes with more than 2 decades of skincare expertise across brands such as Kiehl's or Biotherm. As we have discussed before, and you can see it on this chart, our skincare brands have clearly distinct complementary positionings, spanning the full range of price points and consumer needs.
All of these brands are smartly positioned to occupy white spaces that, of course, allow me not to reveal everything today, as you can understand it very easily. At the very entry level, our Brazilian brands, Monange and Payot, already have leading positions in the mass body lotion, oil, and care category in Brazil. Leveraging this expertise, we've begun our foray into mass skincare with COVERGIRL and adidas. At the prestige end, our presence is much more established with Kylie at the entry prestige level, philosophy and SK-II at the premium level.
Lancaster, as you can see, is positioned in the prestige part of the market, and its range of skincare products now incorporates distinct and patented technologies in areas such as oxygen delivery, full light protection, and a patented and exclusive method of delivering retinol into the skin layers.
Now, of course, we have Orveda at the Ultra-Premium level, anchored in our proprietary biofermentation technology, which allows for significantly higher concentrations of actives with botanical efficacy and skin compatibility. At the same time, we have a clear geographic focus and roadmap for each brand with which Constantin will discuss later.
Brands like philosophy, SK-II, and Kylie and COVERGIRL are already anchored in North America, even as we plan for the expansion of these brands, philosophy, SK-II, and Kylie into EMEA in the coming years. Our Brazilian brands, Monange and Payot, are rooted in this local market. On Lancaster, the brand's roots are in Europe, as you've seen it, though we have begun its rollout in Hainan and mainland China with very strong initial success and much more to come.
Orveda was developed from the beginning with the Chinese consumer in mind, and our initial focus will be on Asia and the US, where Ultra-Premium skincare is booming. Finally, as we revamp and elevate adidas, our focus will be on its core existing markets, including EMEA, China, and Latin America. As an emerging challenger in skincare, we know that our resources are more limited than competitors, and that is why we have carefully chosen our focus areas to maximize the impact of our efforts and overall results.
Rather than targeting all areas of skincare market, and there are many, we are concentrating on our scientific advantages and focuses in the areas where Coty excels with distinct, here again, patented and superior technologies versus what competitors do.
These areas include Full Light Protection, oxygen delivery at the level of the cell, retinol vectorization in the different layers of the skin, DNA repair, and our distinct and first-mover know-how in what we call bio-fermented blends. We have also carefully chosen our regional focus as well. Our efforts will be concentrated on North America, Asia Pacific, and their regional travel retail channels. We estimate that these areas together account for over 80% of the global prestige skincare market.
Our focus and disciplined approach to building out our skincare business also extends to our brand rollout, as our skincare strategy for the next years will be led by our prestige portfolio. As you will see today, we've detailed unique and data-driven plans to revamp communications, launch key innovations, and expand distribution for each of our key prestige brands, including Lancaster, philosophy, Orveda, SK-II, and Kylie.
On the consumer beauty side of the business, we already have a small base business in Brazil with our local brands, Paixão and Monange, and we will take the learnings from these brands and our prestige business to steadily learn and extend in skincare as well. As I mentioned, the focus of today's event is very much on our prestige strategy. However, I did want to take a couple of minutes to touch on our skincare strategy for the consumer beauty division.
Over the past year, you've seen the Coty Consumer Beauty Division pioneering what we call the skinification of makeup with launches such as COVERGIRL Simply Ageless with hyaluronic acid, Rimmel Kind & Free moisturizing and vegan skin tint, Max Factor Miracle Pure skin improving foundation, and Bourjois Healthy Mix vitamin-infused foundation.
Building on this blurring of categories, you will see new Coty initiatives coming soon and focusing on what we call the make-up-ification of skincare and the skinification of body care with adidas. In addition to these hybrid category efforts, our consumer beauty business also has the right and expertise to expand into mass skincare.
With COVERGIRL's strong positioning with its clean, fresh range of makeup, we've launched the initial 5 skincare SKUs, and we will continue to steadily build out the assortment and moreover, the visibility. At the same time, we already have strong skincare positionings in Brazil, where we are the number 1 player in volume and the 1/3 player in value in the Brazilian body lotion and body oil market, led by our Monange and Paixão brands.
I also want to emphasize that our skincare strategy is integrally tied with our ambition to become a leader in sustainability, which is our 6th strategic pillar. This extends to the brand level and to the overall manufacturing base. As you can see on this slide, our 3 key prestige skincare brands, philosophy, Orveda, and Lancaster, are already very well advanced in their journey towards clean formulations and sustainable packagings.
For philosophy, we have been actively reformulating the key franchises to remove questionable ingredients while maintaining the textures, the famous smells, and moreover, the efficacy that consumers have been loving now for many years. Clean formula lines already account for over 85% of philosophy's skincare revenues, speaking to the rapid progress we have made. For Orveda, the full line was conceived and formulated from the very beginning with vegan and clean formulations and sustainable packagings, including no plastic usage.
On Lancaster, earlier this year, we reached an industry first by attaining what we call the Cradle to Cradle Certified for the Lancaster Sun Sensitive line, and our intent is, of course, to go even further in the coming years. Underpinning all of these brand-driven efforts is the fact that this Monaco skincare manufacturing facility that you visited has reached the carbon neutrality already.
As you can see, sustainability is at the heart of our skincare business and strategy. Now to summarize, our skincare strategy is underpinned by our unparalleled skincare IP, patents, know-how, brands, and organization. Second, we have just begun our skincare journey and are already seeing signs of success, which Constantin will discuss later in more details.
Third, we are targeting to double our skincare revenues in the next 3 years, which will be, as you can imagine, a positive contributor to our overall gross margin expansion. Again, I'm very excited by what's in store in the coming years as we execute on our skincare ambitions. With that, let me turn it over to Shimei to provide a more detailed overview of our skincare R&D distinct and superior technologies. Shimei, the floor is yours.
Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Shimei Fan. As Coty's chief scientific officer, I lead our global R&D team and also company's sustainability program. Today, I'm pleased to provide you deeper insights into our innovation IP and scientific heritage. At Coty, the heart of skincare is science. Okay. Coty's success in skincare is built on 3 ingredients: expertise, patent and know-how, and ultimately, superior product performance.
Indeed, Coty is already well positioned to grow our world-recognized skincare portfolio underpinned by each of these ingredients. In beauty, skincare is closest to pharmaceutical sector. To succeed, we need scientific expertise and specialist facilities. Coty's current success and strategy draws upon our 75-year heritage of innovation in skincare, always at the forefront. Coty has been reinventing skincare since 1948, starting with the launch of the Lancaster Skincare Cream.
Over 75 years, Coty has managed to achieve multiple industrial firsts that are still market leading today. For example, our Lancaster team managed to beat all big skincare players and filed the first retinol patent for cosmetic application. In the same year, Lancaster also launched the first retinol skincare cream. To this day, retinol is still the industrial gold standard for anti-aging.
I mean, Coty has since solidified our pioneering position in skincare through leadership across four technology platforms, sunlight protection, retinol vectorization, oxygen delivery, and DNA repair. We believe these are some of the most exciting and high growth areas in skincare for years to come. Coty operates out of four interconnected centers of excellence in skincare in U.S., Europe, China, and Brazil. These skincare hubs are each well-positioned to serve the key global consumers and markets.
With 75 years of dedicated research and development, we have built a unique portfolio of skincare IPs. To put our skincare capabilities into context, we have over 50 active skincare patents that are actively renewed and extended, published more than 85 scientific studies. We have built 25+ research programs with top universities and hospitals. A staggering 80+ innovations in our pipeline today that will fuel our growth ambitions.
Finally, a growing team of more than 120 dedicated skincare scientists. Collectively, these elements give us real confidence to succeed in skincare today and for years to come. Most importantly, winning in skincare is about delivering superior products to our consumers. Our patented technologies and deep formulation know-how are central to our success. I will now take you deeper into our technology platforms, including our newest platform, biotech actives.
I will also explain how we are using science and research to develop winning textures. Almost all dermatologists will tell you that sun exposure is one of the biggest causes of skin damage, aging, and even cancer. It is no surprise today's $8 billion sun care market is predicted to almost double to $15 billion by 2028.
This brings me to our first patented technology platform, Full Light Protection, where Coty, as Sue has shared with you, has over 50 years of leadership in developing winning technologies. Let's begin with, what is Full Light? The sunlight spectrum has 3 parts, visible lights that human eyes can see, UV light with shorter wavelength, and infrared light with longer wavelength. UV light has higher energy that can cause direct damage to skin DNA. Rightfully, UV protection has been the focus of most sun care products on the markets.
However, if you go a little bit deeper, UV light is actually only 6% of the total sunlight radiation. What about the rest of the 94%? At Coty, we have learned that visible light can indeed cause photoaging, while excess infrared light can also lead to skin conditions like hyperpigmentation or dark spots, commonly known.
Providing effective solution to protect our skins across the entire sun spectrum is key, and this is what we mean by Full Light Protection. To achieve this, we investigated nature for inspiration. You know, our scientists, by learning how nature works, we have created a Full Light Technology rooted in what we call biomimetic principles of reflect, absorb, and neutralization. This technology is patented until 2027. As mentioned before, we have an ongoing program to renew and extend our patent protection.
To demonstrate the effectiveness, we tested skin cells exposed to each part of the spectrum with and without our technology. The result has been amazing, delivering reduction in damage ranging from 49%-99%. Proudly, Coty was the first to launch a Full Light Protection products in 2016, and absolutely established a new chapter in sun care history.
As far as we know, we are still the only player that can offer Full Light Protection among large beauty companies who are still very much focused on improving UV light protection today. Coty has a strong competitive advantage. Core to our success is our constant drive to pioneer. What's next? Full Light Repair. Even with Full Light Protection as shown before, 100% protection against sunlight is not achievable, at least at present.
While we continue developing better technology to protect sunlights, we have developed a breakthrough new technology, full light repair. As shown here, this technology provides between 2-6 times faster skin DNA repair when exposed to UV lights, visible lights, and infrared lights. We indeed have filed a patent last year.
If granted, it will provide us patent protection till 2041. By 2050, there will be more than 1.5 billion people aged over 65 and 3.2 million aged over 100. Billions have been spent on searching for ways to extend and improve quality of life, and this is no different in beauty sector. What research has unveiled is that oxygen level in adult skin decrease steadily. By the age of Mid-40s, levels are dropped down nearly 50%. By the Mid-60s, just 20%-25%.
We have developed a highly scientific answer to a global human challenge, oxygen delivery. Our scientist has developed a patented oxygen delivery technology that can carry 400 times more oxygen than water. By refueling skin cells with oxygen, our technology supports effective skin regeneration. This, in return, can deliver both short-term and long-term anti-aging benefits. Okay.
Looking at a simple 70-hour window, you can see here our oxygen technology can deliver an improvement of over 40% in skin cell growth and migration, critical for skin regeneration and wound healing indeed. Now, let's have a look at its impact on collagen synthesis. Collagen is essentially the scaffold that provides support and structure underneath your skin. When we age, we lose collagen, which in return causes skin to sag as well as deep wrinkles.
With our patented oxygen delivery technology, as you can see, we can help improve collagen synthesis by over 55%, a breakthrough discovery. As mentioned earlier, our Lancaster team was the first to file a retinol patent and to offer anti-aging cream that contained retinol. However, while the gold standard retinol can cause skin irritation, especially with people that have sensitive skin. Okay.
Continuing our heritage of retinol innovation, we are proud to have developed retinol vectorization, an innovative and sophisticated delivery system. Let me go a bit deeper on this. So this technology uses an advanced patented liposome delivery system called cationic liposome, which has positive charge compared to standard liposome. Why positive charge, you may wonder? It is because by and large, our skin cells are negatively charged.
By leveraging the attraction between opposite charges, cationic liposome is proven to be the most efficient liposome delivery systems. It is indeed actually used in gene therapy in medical world. As you might expect, we have strong patent on this technology protected till 2032. Quickly, compared to standard liposome, our technology allows much greater intracellular delivery, as indicated by the green staining.
In skincare, greater active delivery generally translates into better efficacy with less or no irritation. Our cationic liposome also proved to significantly boost collagen synthesis, as shown by the stronger green staining you can see here. As mentioned before, collagen is incredibly important for maintain a youthful skin without sagginess or deep wrinkles. Furthermore, through an eight-week clinical test, we have achieved 50% or more improvement in wrinkles and fine lines reduction.
We have also validated a significant improvement on more fundamental skin properties such as skin density and elasticity. This is true mastery in retinol. Global climate change, rising temperatures, and pollution are driving a double-digit increase in skin conditions. It is indeed widely acknowledged that climate change has and will continue to indeed exacerbate skin DNA damage.
We have an obligation to offer our consumers a better solution now. I'm very proud of our patented DNA repair technology, which I will explain in more detail. It is first pioneered by Coty in 2003. We have developed a unique cocktail of four DNA repair enzymes that targeted multi-biological pathways for effective DNA repair. This technology is also supported by a patented liposome delivery system.
Our new Lancaster 365, which you'll hear a little bit later, is a great example of how we have brought this technology to market. The result has been astonishing. As you can see from the graph here, when compared to Non-treated, our technology has shown much faster recovery by the top line. Of course, the cause of skin DNA damage is not limited to sunlight.
Exposure to environmental pollutions as well as our own mental stress can also lead to skin DNA damage. Smile more. Okay, as you can see here, equally impressive DNA repair has been achieved against damage caused by pollution as well as mental stress. Move on. Biotech has exploded in the past 2 decades, and it is now absolutely the epicenter of discovery and innovation in life sciences.
We believe efficacy with kindness to skin is the skincare of the future. This has led us to biofermentation for inspiration and novel skin solutions. Let me share a bit more. We believe biofermentation is the dawn of a new skincare age, offering unprecedented efficacy without irritation. Briefly, biofermentation is a manufacturing process that combines substrates as well as microorganisms to produce the desired ingredients and the molecules.
Combined with Coty's scientific knowledge and skincare know-how, we have created unique blends that can deliver improved biocompatibility, so essentially works with your skin rather than against it, enhanced biomimicry for better efficacy, and ultimately, higher doses, higher inclusion levels of our actives for boosted potency without irritation. Through our research in the past 5 years, we have created 25+ unique active blends, really pushing the boundaries of efficacy. Let me show you.
Take our marine enzyme blend as example. It literally doubled the ceramide synthesis. Ceramide is critical for skin barrier health. Our black tea blend has also shown almost 90% uplift in skin antimicrobial peptide production. These peptides help defend against millions of pathogens our skin encounters every day. I'm truly proud to share the clinical results of our latest Orveda product line.
Using our biofermentation blends, we have seen unprecedented improvement across key skin dimensions in just four weeks. I think most clinical skin data you will see is eight weeks or 16 weeks. Here is four weeks. For me, these results are simply astonishing. Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, product texture is also incredibly important to win skincare. Just as sugars make medicine taste better, the right texture can transform consumer experiences.
Intuitively, delightful product texture drives compliance, 'cause you simply use more and more often, and ultimately drives superior clinical efficacy. Developing winning texture, though, is a complex task. It requires deep understanding of formulation sciences, as illustrated here by a multitude of instrumental analysis, as well as consumer preferences as shown on the right, 'cause not everyone like the same texture, okay? At Coty, we are investing and building a huge database, and we're beginning to use AI to really accelerate our discoveries and developments.
Now I will demonstrate how consumers like our technology and products. Based on a large own branded consumer test conducted in China, where we have some of the most discerning consumers in the world, Lancaster 365 serum wins over number one and number 2 market leaders, not only in efficacy but also in texture and fragrance.
I have to say, this is absolutely the very proud moment for Coty scientists and indeed for Coty's skincare team. To summarize, we believe the recipe to succeed in skincare requires 3 ingredients, expertise, patent, and know-how, and ultimately, superior product performance. With this, I thank you for your attention. I will now introduce you to our Chief Brand Officer, Constantin. Thank you. Hi, Constantin.
Thank you, Shimei. I promise I will keep smiling. Now I get it.
Less stress.
We don't have stress. Hello, everyone. I'm Constantin Sklavenitis, and I lead the prestige division. I joined Coty after 25 years in prestige for companies like L'Oréal and Estée Lauder, with deep expertise and experience in skincare on brands like Vichy, Lancôme, Biotherm, or Kiehl's. Let me tell you why Coty Prestige is well-poised to succeed in skincare, and for 3 main reasons.
First, as you saw in details with Shimei, we have a distinctive technological expertise to succeed. We have a superior knowhow required to be a serious player. Finally, we have the perfect portfolio of brands to cover the white spaces. Knowhow. We now have 190 people in our headquarters and labs dedicated to skincare.
Since 2018, we have increased our dedicated budget by 6 times for skincare brand customer studies to understand what customer wants and how our brands answer their needs. Let's dig into the 3 main key success factors to succeed in skincare. First, you need a deep understanding of consumer demand and future trends.
Today, based on our consumer knowledge, we have seen and we see 5 mega trends and a transversal expectation for more authenticity and a different point of view. You need a distinctive and superior technology. A focused execution with hero products, a strong pull model, and a focused distribution rollout. Let's start with the 5 mega trends. Especially after COVID, we see the need for reassurance, credibility, and powerful advanced research. This need is answered by established brands.
The second mega trend is the need for efficacy endorsed by the medical community. The clinical and derm brands are here to respond to that need.1/3 trend relates to the quest for exclusive and rare ingredients. Ultra premium brands are on this segment. We see the need for safety, naturality, embodied by natural brands.
Finally, the last trend, the longing for a specific point of view. Alternative brands and indies provide an answer to this need. Looking at the market size to understand the business significance of these 5 segments and their evolution, we see on the left that the established brands are still the biggest chunk of the market and will continue to be. On this segment, we have the brand Lancaster. Clinique, our clinical and dermato brands will grow, reaching 15% of the market and even 1/3 in the U.S.
We cover these consumers with philosophy. Ultra premium is going to explode over the next few years, and especially in China. We have Orveda to succeed in this segment. Finally, we have our 2 celebrity brands, SKKN by Kim and Kylie Skin, to cover indies and alternative brands, especially true in the U.S. Our brands also cover all price points from $10 to more than $400.
Most importantly, our brands bring a different and unique proposition. For established brands, while most competitors offer a skincare answer following trends, when retinol is popular, well, they use retinol. When it's microbiome, they go for it, et cetera, et cetera. We offer 75 years of expertise in regenerative science, one of the most promising scientific fields for the future.
On clinical and, dermatology trends, while competitive brands center with banalized clinical ingredients, we have philosophy's proprietary formulation principle. On ultra premium, Orveda offers the richness of our concentrated unique biotech blends, creating a new skincare category. Finally, on indies and alternative, we have the most powerful prescriptors on the planet with Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian. Our brand express a clear and unique point of view.
Lancaster is all about activating the power that lies within each and everyone, beyond repair, self-repair, using the power of your own skin. Orveda works with your skin rather than against to provide a signature original glow that brings a new perspective to youth. With Philosophy, it's no pain, with gain, as the sense of purpose is to provide efficacy with respect. Kylie is truly the Gen Z toolbox for a young, healthy looking skin.
Finally, Skin by Kim aims at democratizing dermatology secrets to strengthen skin barrier. Now let's look at another important key success factors, seeking for authenticity and personal point of view. That's a general trend that goes far beyond beauty. Emblematic founders that took a different route from taking space with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to medicine with Katalin Karikó that found the RNA vaccine. This translate also to skincare with Tiffany Masterson, Max Huber, or Brent and Josh from Beekman.
At Coty, we have a strong founder lineup,Dr. Eugène Frezzatti
The second key factor success, the science behind the brands, and we do have superior brand technology at Coty. Lancaster is based on proprietary technology and regenerative science through encapsulated actives and Full Light Protection. Orveda is the French green biotech expert with proprietary blends of bio-augmented actives and concentration never seen before. philosophy science brings efficacy with respect, leveraging our own proprietary formulation principle and delivery.
Kylie Skin Care is all about multitasking products with clinical proven actives and naturally derived ingredients. Finally, SKKN by Kim uses dermatologist actives mixed with lipids that strengthen the skin barrier. Let's dig deep and start with Lancaster. Lancaster was born in skincare and was a brand leading the market at that time. We launched Sun Care, and we became very successful in Sun Care.
Slowly over time, we forgot a bit about our roots and drifted to almost become exclusively a sun care expert. In fact, the brand was such a powerhouse in skincare efficacy that Princess Grace of Monaco, regular user of the brand, naturally appointed it her official supplier in 1965. Well, we're going to bring back the story of the amazing skincare efficacy and superiority of Lancaster and bring the brand to new heights.
Lancaster is back, and to embody the story, our first hero product is our transversal serum, 365 Skin Repair. Our labs created this product after discovering the skin enzymes responsible for its self-repair. We encapsulated them in a patented superior technology to create one of the most potent serum on the market.
As you saw previously with Shimei, it's the number one and the number 2 serum of the market that our powerhouse is selling over $300 million in retail sales each. This is only the beginning. We're coming with an exceptional new line in 2023 on the Ultra-Premium trend. See a first glimpse of the packaging. It is a new game-changing range, outperforming consumer test norms with very high scores of liking, satisfaction, purchase intention, and most of it, difference.
Brand revolution has already begun. Before the new full concept that will hit in 2023, we already have a renovated layout, as you can see in La Galleria, Sanya, that just opened this past June in Hainan. Already, Lancaster is one of the fastest-growing brand in Hainan, reaching top 20. See those amazing retailer quotes.
We have witnessed the brand speed to market development and are confident of its growth potential. Lancaster took us by surprise, showing strong performance. More to come in 2023 with the brand ultimate expression and major relaunch, an in-store experience that will be unrivaled. Our pool model will use local celebrities, regenerative science doctors, as well as skin experts, coupled with tactical paid media
Our distribution strategy will start in China, expanding to Tmall and department stores, and growing travel retail in Hainan. Moving now on to Orveda, our Ultra-Premium brand. This brand brings a new skincare vision. It's currently a very selective brand that we integrated to Coty 6 months ago, present only in a very few doors, offering disruptive and superior formulations. We see a huge potential for Orveda to become a high-end market leader. It all started from insights of Sue Nabi.
The more she was using highly concentrated skincare, the more she noticed that her skin was becoming sensitive, showing early signs of aging. It was like these actives she was using were working against her skin rather than with it, what dermatologists call Over-Processed skin. She joined forces with a genius chemist, one of the most secretive Parisian plastic surgeon, 3 French biotech companies, as well as a visionary Co-Founder, Nicolas Vu, to create a line of game-changing products.
The secret lies in our proprietary biotech blends. What is our biotech expertise? It is a superior and proprietary blends, cutting-edge processes, mixing biofermentation, enzymatic catalysis, and plant cell defense simulation. That changes everything. It brings to our products unrivaled efficacy, allowing concentration never reached before, up to 15 times more than the average skincare, while kind to the skin.
For a skin that looks younger, healthier, more even, with an unseen signature original glow. This is Orveda. Our customer tests show the potential of the brand starting in China. Consumers confirm its uniqueness, differentiated versus its competitors. They validated its founder's legitimacy and welcome very positively the technology behind it. Look at those customer quotes. From a female user in Shanghai, "Orveda is different.
Other brands use plants, natural ingredients, but Orveda combines it with tech. This is innovation." From Chengdu, "The glow from inside out is natural. I don't think any other brand can achieve that." This is a selection of Orveda hero products, including the multi-award-winning Healing Sap and a new revolutionary serum that will be launched next year. The roadmap for Orveda is clear. Whisper communication and word of mouth, including derms, skinfluencers, and A-list world celebrities and clienteling.
We're also going to expand its distribution, starting with key department stores, retailers.com, and selected spas. Let's now have a look at philosophy, our beloved U.S.-based brand. Well, 26 years ago, this brand was born again in skincare and became, in 2010, a top four skincare brand in the U.S. The brand slowly drifted to body cleansers, and by the way, with success, reaching the number one spot.
This came with a decreasing focus on its original skincare story that saw the brand sleeping in rankings. philosophy indeed forgot its original DNA and product superiority at a time when the market was becoming increasingly sophisticated. We focus more on the fun side and natural ingredients and on what philosophy technology really is. In fact, philosophy are still among the best consumer-rated products in the market, superior and the number one comparable SKU.
A customer even quoted, "philosophy skincare changed my life." This brand has the highest community support and advocacy in the market. What's the story? philosophy was founded by Cristina Carlino. That woman invented the first dermatological peels made with microdoses of ingredients, allowing for the first time efficacy without irritation. For 20 years, the brand and the labs accumulated knowledge of crafting a different formulation approach, allowing efficacy without irritation.
A proprietary principle allows to deliver, in the most gentle way, efficacious actives that could potentially be irritating, but also amplifies the efficacy of skin strengthening actives. Formulas, textures, and slight scents are crafted to add pleasure. We explain this story hits and resonates. It's seen as credible but also new and different by derms and consumers. Again, look at the quotes. "I really like philosophy approach," Dr. Bazzi.
It is result-driven and respects the science behind the skin," Dr. Tomassian. "I think this is awesome. philosophy is back. It's positive, it's new, it's different," prospective users. We are preparing a total rebranding, focusing on our hero products that all include our formulation principle. We'll have new assets, new merchandising, a new website, and we're launching a breakthrough new transversal serum in 2023.
To support the turnaround, we'll activate micro-influencers and communities outreach, starting in U.S. retail. Now to Kylie Skin, the Gen Z toolbox. You've all seen or heard about the long lines in front of our stores with diehard fans waiting for hours to get products. What's her philosophy? Educate and inspire Gen Z's and millennials with routine-ready skincare that is clean, simple, playful, but effective. Her fans are in love with her products and strongly advocate them.
With close to 400 million followers on Instagram, we see the potential of the brand. Look what customers say about the bestsellers. "The face wash is absolutely amazing." "The moisturizer, a best ever product that really works." "And the face mask is phenomenal, the best one ever." With beloved products and the power of Kylie, the world is ours.
Let's finally look at SKKN by Kim, our newest brand, launched 3 months ago last June, bridging the gap between the world's most renowned dermatological experts and people at home seeking high performance skincare. The line is currently made of 9 core clean products that offer ultimate high performance. Here again, very strong customer testimonials, literally obsessed, hands down the best face cream ever, even some see a healing to eczema.
We can rely on Kim Kardashian's reach with a screenshot of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, her 329 million followers. We had a great start on our DTC launch in June, and our number one SKU is that 9 product set that retails for $575. To wrap up my presentation, let's look at our targeted rollouts of our skincare brands.
We take a careful and targeted rollout. Lancaster rebranding will start in China and travel retail, then Asia, Europe, to finally reach the world. philosophy will first focus its turnaround in the U.S. to later expand to Europe and Asia. Orveda will target China and U.S. first to then expand to Europe and the world. SKKN by Kim will first focus on the U.S. before expanding to Anglo-Saxon countries and then Europe, Latam, and TR.
After consolidating the Americas, Kylie is rolling out to Europe, Australia before further expansion. Thank you very much for your attention. Now to you, Laurent.
Thank you, Constantin. Let me briefly share now our financial overview and the role our skincare strategy will play in our medium-term financial roadmap. Let's start with a brief update on our first 1/4 and fiscal 2023 expectations. The trends for global beauty demand continue to be robust across both the prestige and mass channels and across many geographies.
As a result, we are increasing our Q1 Like-For-Like sales guidance, adjusted for the impact of Russia to 8%-9% growth versus our prior guidance of 6%-8% growth. Based on this robust sales momentum and nice contribution from mix, we now expect a bit higher growth margin expansion in Q1 compared to the modest growth margin expansion to which we had initially guided. This is despite the continued inflationary pressure we are facing.
Looking out to the remainder of fiscal 2023, while we are not seeing any evidence in our market so far that would suggest slowing demand, consumer trade downs, or any inventory buildups, we are mindful of the very complex and uncertain microenvironment, the continued fluctuations in the business mix, and the fact that we are only 3 months into our fiscal year.
We are therefore maintaining our initial fiscal 2023 guidance, though of course, the stronger expected Q1 delivery reinforce our confidence in our fiscal 2023 outlook. Our fiscal 2023 guidance includes Like-For-Like sales growth adjusted for the Russian impact of 6%-8%, gross margins up modestly in the first 1/2 and full year fiscal 2023, adjusted EBITDA of $955 million-$965 million at current exchange rates, and Mid-teens EPS growth to the range of $0.32-$0.33.
Before we turn to our expectations for the coming years, I think it's important to highlight how our portfolio has shifted in recent years as we focus on capturing key growth areas in beauty. Clearly, the growth profile of the prestige fragrance category has accelerated more recently, and we have seen prestige fragrance grow from 51% of the mix in fiscal 2019 to 53% in fiscal 2022. Another growth area we identified was prestige cosmetics.
While we had no footprint in this attractive category Pre-COVID, in only 3 years, prestige cosmetics has reached 4% of total Coty revenues in fiscal 2022. We were able to build this business largely from scratch, which is a proof point of Coty's capabilities as we embark on our roadmap to accelerate our skincare business.
Although we are not starting from scratch in skincare, we have developed a precise and sequenced strategy to build out our skincare business. In fiscal 2023, we'll be solidifying the foundations for skincare. This means strengthening the central R&D, marketing, analytics, and digital capabilities. We will also commence with breakthrough launches and activations on Lancaster during the second 1/2 of the fiscal year.
For fiscal 2024, we further strengthen our local capabilities and go live within market activations across several of our brands, while also having in place a fully built out multi-year pipeline of innovations. By fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, we will be in a position to accelerate the global distribution and launch activation of our skincare brands.
Our build out strategy has been precisely developed and sequenced. It will be methodically executed in the coming years, ensuring our skincare business is set up for success, not just in the next few years, but over the long term. What sort of growth does all of this entail? We expect this will culminate in our skincare revenues doubling by fiscal 2025, increasing to a range of $500 million-$600 million.
We expect the business to continue the growth momentum beyond fiscal 2025, rising 15%-20% in fiscal 2026 to a range of $600 million-$700 million and further expansion from there. Importantly, we expect each of our skincare brands to contribute to this growth. This brings me now to our medium-term financial algorithm.
I have already covered our fiscal 2023 expectations, which once adjusted for Russia, are in line with the medium-term targets we laid out at our investor day last year. Based on the progress we have already made internally and what we see externally, we remain fully confident in our medium-term growth algorithm through fiscal 2025 and beyond.
Let me quickly walk you through this algorithm. 6%-8% Like-For-Like revenue growth, outperforming the beauty market, which we estimate at 3%-5% growth. Gross margins reaching Mid-60s% by fiscal 2025 and continuing to expand from there. Adjusted EBITDA growing at a 9%-11% CAGR through fiscal 2025 and beyond. Operating income grows even higher.
Adjusted EPS growing at a low 20% CAGR through fiscal 2025, reflecting the operating leverage effect from the profit expansion as well as a continued reduction in our interest expense. Last but not least, leverage getting to approximately 3x exiting calendar year 2023 and approximately 2x exiting calendar 2025, including the $200 million share buyback we intend to execute in calendar 2024. Now to conclude with our investment highlights.
We are rapidly executing on our 6 strategic pillars, while we have successfully transformed the financial model into a virtuous cycle. Our near-term outlook for Q1 has increased, further strengthening the confidence we have to deliver upon our fiscal 2023 financial objectives. We have a clearly defined and sequenced plan in place to succeed in skincare, resulting in revenues doubling by fiscal 2025, with continued rapid growth into fiscal 2026.
The expansion of our skincare business is one of many levers that will support our gross margin ambitions. For instance, Lancaster already has a gross margin of over 70%, and as some of the remaining businesses scale up, this should only further benefit total Coty margins. We remain confident in the medium-term algorithm we laid out last year, which represents Coty growing above the beauty market while also increasing its profitability and therefore supporting leverage improvement. Thank you very much. We are now looking forward to answering your questions.
Also we'll be taking questions from the people watching over webcast. There's a tab on the upper left corner, as you view, and you can submit questions there.
This, I think, is a great strategy and makes a lot of sense. Maybe you can now talk about how it's funded, and in terms of, you know, are there other productivity mechanisms that you're putting into place to drive the resources to actually put this plan into effect? Maybe any thoughts around that would be helpful.
Yes, of course. Definitely, you know, what I shared, you know, at the end of my part is we confirm our midterm algorithm. This equation, of course, is fully included in this midterm algorithm. First, I mean, supported by, you know, the footprint we have already in Coty, and we always insist that, you know, we have the right footprint in terms of categories, we have the right footprint in terms of geographies, and we have also the right footprint, you know, in terms of brands and also price positioning. This gives us, you know, combined with gross margin expansion, the ammunition to support the new initiatives.
To add on this, to be even more specific, and you noticed, I mean, you know, we started the All In to Win program 2 years ago, and we still have, you know, 2023 and 2024 to execute. 2023, we have a plan, you know, to deliver $160-$170 million, and in 2024, $75 million additional productivity. All these initiatives, which is a combination on fixed cost, we continue on cost of goods, where we have also some initiatives, and also optimizing, you know, A&CP, you know, going in depth on how we are, you know, more productive and more efficient. We continue, you know, with the discipline that we implemented 2 years ago.
We continue this work within the All In to Win umbrella, and this will give us the fuel to support all the new initiatives.
Olivia.
Yes, Olivia.
I don't hear the. Sorry. I think the mic was off. That's fine. You can switch.
It's popping up.
Okay. A couple of questions there. Number 1 is how much of the overage in growth relative to the category, the 3%-5% to the 6%-8%, is a function of skincare expansion? Then, another thing that I saw was that it looks like you don't have any plans to launch Kylie in Asia anytime soon, so curious on your decision there.
Yeah. I think you don't want to take the first one. Of course, I take the first one. Olivia, I trust you will do the math. I mean, it's really, again, we made very clear that we are gonna double, you know, skincare business by fiscal 2025. Again, this is included within the 6%-8%. Indeed, it's gonna be a part, you know, of the 6%-8% growth. It means also that, you know, the existing business that we have, you know, on the prestige fragrance, prestige makeup, consumer beauty combined with your geographical footprint, of course remain key contributor of the growth. It's very Well-Balanced.
On the second part, if I may, of the question, which is around Kylie in Asia. In fact, what we are doing is first to start with the brands that are skincare pure players. In Asia, skincare pure players have a right to win that's immediate almost. And by the way, more or less worldwide. This is the first region. Second region, Lancaster is already in Asia, and it's already in Hainan, stocked in Sephora today, and the brand is showing fantastic, I would say, attractivity towards Chinese consumers on both directions.
And the 1/3 reason why, I do believe is that we have so much to do with Kylie in the rest of the world. Kylie is clearly, you know, a brand that's doing great in Anglo-Saxon countries. We recently launched it in Latin America, in Mexico, in Brazil.
It's become, you know, one of the key makeup sellers in travel retail, specifically in Europe, in London, or in Paris, to take these 2 examples. Honestly, we are 100% focused on using the brands that are powerful in the regions where they are meaningful. Yes, Steph. Oh, sorry, Robbert.
It's Linda Bolton Weiser with D.A. Davidson. Can you comment on, in terms of these major technologies that you're focused on and that you have patents, et cetera, how does it stack up competitively versus the other big companies? I'm sure they're all working in these areas. Is it that you're just doing more unique proprietary things in these areas, or are you focused on different areas whereas they're doing some other types of categories?
Do you wanna answer?
Yeah.
Can I try-
I think we showed you the 6 areas. Among 5 of them are truly technology, and the last one is about putting things together. As we showed you, we are very much focused on these areas to drive superiority. It is, we have many data to show you. We are superior than our competitors. Not on every dimension, but on these 5, 6 areas we absolutely focus on, we are superior than our competitors.
In fact, the patents that we have in areas such as Full Light Protection.
Mm-hmm
are really patents that are very, very unique to Coty. In fact, you've seen many of our competitors, including recently, you know, advertising a lot of UV protection at different lengths of the UV, I would say,
Mm-hmm
Lengths. In fact, we go beyond. That's what she may explain. You know, a lot of companies are focused on the 6% or 4% that are made of UV. We've done the job to cover almost 100% of the light, you know, and this is very unique to us.
Mm-hmm.
If you think about retinol, clearly this is a huge competitive advantage that I do believe Coty is the only company to have today.
Mm-hmm.
To be able to deliver retinol to the right layer of the skin without causing less irritation versus peer. These are very competitive. It's not just, you know, sometimes people do innovations that are a bit different way to do things. Here, it's really superior patented technologies. You need to ask for the mic, Robbert, if not they are not.
Can I just follow up on that?
Now it's here.
Just real quick.
Nik, yeah.
How do you communicate that message to the consumer? 'Cause, you know, I pay attention, I didn't know any of this, you know, until-
Me too.
Yeah.
Only Coty. Do you see?
Yeah.
Voilà. We are all learning what we can do, what we've done, what we have, I would say, in our hands. We are starting, I would say, a company strategy that will start by my person to talk to journalists, to talk to everyone who is going to listen to me, to explain why this company is going to be one of the key, if not one of the most innovative competitors in the skincare arena.
Of course, this will of course, you know, go to the different countries where we are going to launch our brands, in the U.S., in China, of course in travel retail, in the different countries around these areas, where we are going to have a strong communication strategy to tell exactly what we've showed you today.
You're the first to see it, but you'll not be the last one, for sure.
This, I just add on, is like both Sue, me, and Constantin, we've been working in skincare industry for many, many years. This is truly when we come to visiting the Monaco lab, it was discover a treasure chest, which has been with Coty for years and years. You're absolutely right, one of the focus for us is really how do we make it known to the world and, you know, offer it to consumers to benefit for them?
Robbert.
Great. Thank you very much. This has been terrific. Sue, a lot of great initiatives here. Now you've got to execute, right? In terms of successful execution over the next 3-4 years.
Yes
What are the things that
You are looking to guard against, you know, what can go wrong and what steps are you taking to mitigate against that, and is the execution tied into the team's compensation? Thank you.
That's a good question. The 2 parts of the question, by the way, are meaningful. The first part, which is around, you know, how we are making sure that there will be no mistakes or at least the minimum number of mistakes is, I could summarize it in one quote.
I would say we need our people in the company from, you know, the BAs in stores to people answering on social media to us, of course, to know better than consumers, because today consumers are becoming experts. A lot of them know a lot about skincare, what works, what doesn't work, what's a good formula, what's not a good formula. This is something we started, of course, not now.
We started to do this a year ago, and we will accelerate this now on the local levels to make sure that all of us are upskilled to become, you know, the best-in-class skincare expert. When we talk to consumers, to influencers, if they are specifically derms or whatever, we need to have data, scientific data. We need to be credible.
This is for me a very, very important item that I'm a bit obsessed with since a few months now. My obsession is growing day after day into the company. On the second part of your question, of course, this will be at a moment or another in the key countries tied to the remuneration scheme of the key different people.
That's the only way to make things happen if you wanna make sure you can measure things, and therefore you can animate people. Skincare is a key priority of the company, probably among the most important ones, and this needs to translate into what people are going to do on a monthly basis or on a daily basis, globally and locally.
Mm-hmm.
I have 2 questions. The first is in the pyramid slide, there was a designer.
Yeah.
-layer that was shaded, and there was a gap there. Maybe talk a little bit about how you partner with your portfolio of premium licenses to activate body care, skincare. Then my second question, and Sue, you were talking a little bit about this, but maybe share with us a little bit about marketing around items or franchises, 'cause it was something that showed up in the lab today, this idea of platforming some of your key franchises and how you expect to commercialize those.
I'll try to take the first part, and maybe Shimei.
Yeah.
Constantin, you do the second part. Again, you know, when you know the skincare markets, you clearly see that pure players are those who win. Skincare is a very, very specific category, and I remember from my past experiences, sometimes on counters, when you put a fragrance or a makeup visual, you sell less skincare. Those who are 360 days a year showing skincare in front of consumers are those who win. That's the reason why we are focusing first on these brands that are pure players, be it Lancaster, Orveda, philosophy, et cetera. These are the brands that are today the leaders in the skincare area.
The second part of the answer, I would say, is that today with our key licenses, we have, I think, fantastic opportunities in fragrances that we just started to touch, you know, 1 year ago with this outstanding growth that you have seen on our prestige fragrance business. We have prestige makeup, which is a long journey, and I would say a very competitive one, where we've been progressing super fast.
You've seen from 0 2 years ago to 4% of the turnover today. These are more or less, I would say, the answers I would give you in terms of why we are focusing first on our pure players. This is really the key competitive advantage that we see in all the markets. Maybe on the second part, which is around L'Oréal that they see in this morning.
Yeah. What is the principles is in terms of anti-aging or skincare needs is not really brand specific. From in the back office, the technology is truly platform, depending on what problem you're solving. Of course, in the front office, depending on what is the emotional desire, they can be brand specific. It's a good marriage. What we have is give the best technology to consumer to solve their problems, and my colleague here to find the right story to connect emotionally with them, so they will love the products, use them more, and get the better outcome.
On the prestige side, what we created with Sue, we have a dedicated head of R&D and product development dedicated to prestige.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
She's a fantastic player. She came a few months ago, same with me, and she was a game changer. There is certain things that you can platform and other things that you cannot for, by the way, cost reasons, platform.
Mm-hmm.
There's technologies that you will only see in brands, honestly. Some other less added value that you can see in other brands. It's something that we do very carefully, and that works. At the end of the day, it's the consumer first for sure.
You clearly have huge opportunities, obviously across all of the segments. Laurent, to your point, the 6%-8% growth is balanced across fragrance, prestige. Given it seems like there's huge opportunities in each area, do you feel like how do you balance the resource in terms of the targeted level of marketing spend? You know, you've got a huge momentum behind fragrance, then you've got skin, then you've got the turnaround and the consumer beauty. You know, can you help us understand how you balance that resource and funding across those buckets?
Absolutely. I will give you a broad view and maybe my colleagues then can deep dive on skincare, which also, you know, in terms of support is slightly different. Definitely, I mean, as you rightly say, 6%-8% is indeed Well-Balanced. I'm insisting it is Well-Balanced across categories, across geographies, and also across brands. We really make sure that, you know, we keep always this balanced portfolio.
Now in terms of support, we continue the journey. We made very clear last year that, you know, we are at a level of high twenties of A&CP. This we continue, you know, to reinvest. All the savings that we are doing, I was referring to the All In to Win, you know, is here really to fuel all these initiatives and really to continue the flywheel.
How we allocate the money, let's be very clear. I mean, we are very, very pragmatic. We have the strategy. This is very clear. Now I can tell you the Day-To-Day is really, you know, work with my colleagues. Of course, we are supporting the key initiatives. We keep supporting also, you know, initiatives from the previous year. That's absolutely important, so that, you know, we continue this fueling.
This is what we are doing both on prestige and consumer beauty. Last but not least, what's super important, of course, within A&CP is the efficiency and the efficacy that we are putting. It's really dimension about return on investment. This is an obsession that we have. Also productivity. This is things that within A&CP we are working really on how to gain productivity.
This is work we are doing with procurement, of course, with marketing. All these initiatives give us the fuel and really allocate where we have the growth opportunities. We are also very dynamic and very pragmatic, okay, in the way. We are very reactive in the way we allocate the money. This is the prod you.
Now moving to skincare, and Sue, you can give more details on the.
I think, Laurent is right, and I have to tell you something, there's one good thing that you have in front of you, is that we have failed before in our lives in skincare. Now, I say that because we've seen some traps not to do. I can tell you the number one trap is to not come with a difference, something better than the market. You know, a lot of brands have started launching things that are me-toos.
Believe me, this market does not need another skincare brand. What we have done, and not only is digging to see this amazing technology that we have, but creating stories that proven to really add something, which is a number one thing.
We've learned also, and I won't name the brand, but it's in our recent history, with Sue and the team, of an unbelievable campaign that beats very big competitors, and I'm talking not probably only skincare. We have the media because the copy, because the message was different and striking. It's not, you know, you can lose your shirts if you overinvest in things.
The right thing, and that's the smartness that Laurent says. Now, I cannot say it's a recipe and we will succeed for sure, but we have seen, we have failed all, we have learned, and we put that in the equation. Then the 1/3 aspect is focus. You saw, and that was the question, right? Why don't you go to Asia?
If you start doing everything everywhere, it's also one of the recipes that will make you fail because you disperse your means. You saw it's very focused. We put in place some elements to maximize our chances of success.
No, Constantin is super right, and this difference is key. In fact, we've seen it in the rest of the business. I remember, you know, when I joined Coty, I had teams in front of me saying, "Yeah, yeah, but we're investing not at the level of the leaders," et cetera, on some key fragrance launches. We ended up beating these leaders who were investing twice because the advertising, the story, the product offering was different.
Different, difference buys attention. Likeness, you know, sameness, it's very difficult. You need to be the one who shouts the strongest, and you can shout only with money in this business. We try to mix. Of course, you need money, but above all, you need difference. The second element that's very, very important and specific to skincare is that skincare is about credibility, and credibility is not mass media.
You cannot buy credibility by shouting to everyone. You need to have one-to-one talks, and that's a very different business model.
Hi. Thanks so much. I'm Anna Lizzul from Bank of America. Just on Lancaster, you know, you already launched in Asia, you already exist there, so a bit of an easier brand revamp. Just in the U.S., just wanna understand that market. Is there room for a Lancaster launch? I know you're a bit more focused on philosophy right now, but wanna understand that market.
You know, at the end of the day, it's what Constantin laid in his answer. We are going to do things step by step. We need to demonstrate to us, to you, to everyone that we have a winning Lancaster brand in China. Without quoting some other brands from other companies that reinvented themselves in China before spreading to the rest of the world, that's clearly a great opportunity for us if we do the homework and we do the job in China.
There is no reason why not specifically that, you know, American derms, what is their obsession? Sun protection. They speak only about this. We have the best sun protections on Earth on Lancaster. There is a potential there. Sorry, Europe. Yeah.
Great. Thank you. Just on your increased guidance as well, you know, how much of that is really driven by the momentum you're seeing right now in prestige across fragrance versus beauty versus skincare? Just to touch on those various verticals.
What's important to note is that this is a Well-Balanced growth. It means that this Q1 is really both consumer beauty and prestige. It's really both. As you recall, I mean, prestige, of course, is on top of a very strong Q1 we had last year. Again, that's why every time I'm insisting on a very balanced portfolio and very balanced growth.
Very balanced.
I think maybe we'll take one question from our webcast attendees. Laurent, how will the skincare strategy change our CapEx expectations?
On our CapEx, same as, you know, as I said, part of our flywheel and midterm guidance. This is completely included in our leverage target. Here again is a question of allocation. We stay, you know, very disciplined on CapEx spending. Yes, we will allocate more on skincare, but definitely we stay within the envelope that we, you know, we have on CapEx. Allocation and again, discipline as we shared before, focusing on where we have, you know, the right productivity and the right ROI.
One key element, Olivia , if I may, is that digital today is changing the way people shop skincare. Sometimes they discover in stores, but they refuel most of the times online, and this requires less stores to open, less CapEx, et cetera. That's the reason why for me, our digital capabilities and our skincare capabilities work hand in hand. One allows the other.
One other question that came through the webcast. If we're raising our Q1 guidance, why not take up our full year guidance?
Sorry, say it again.
Why not raising the full year guidance?
Why we're not raising our full year guidance.
I mean, first of all, we are confirming our full year guidance. This is definitely the key message. Of course, I mean, you know, the Q1 is giving us full confidence. I mean, again, as I said, balanced portfolio. It confirms that the demand is very strong, this is very encouraging. We are seeing indeed also in Q1, you know, some early orders from retailers which is also very encouraging, you know, for the coming 1/4s.
We confirm our full year. Of course, I mean, we are only, you know, 3 months into your year. Macroeconomics remain very volatile. That's clear confirmation of our confidence that we confirm full year guidance.
One last question from the room.
Sure.
Robbert Ottenstein, Evercore ISI. Your fragrance business, if I recall, was up 25% the last 1/4. Marc was up 20%. You know, incredible growth. It's been strong for a couple of years now. But you're not gonna grow 20-25% forever, right? Just trying to understand in terms of your projections, what kind of growth are you looking at for fragrances?
I mean, do you see it going back in the short term at least to more of a flattish and this kind of a more regression to the mean? Or, I mean, how long can it grow at, you know, double digit type rates? And what's in your numbers? What are you modeling?
Yeah, the algorithm was built.
Yeah.
Assumption that Laurent maybe can share back with you.
I can give, you know, I mean, the broad picture in terms of algorithm and then Sue and my colleagues can, you know, give a perspective of what we are seeing from, you know, consumer standpoint. What I can tell you is that, of course, in the 6%-8%, we take the assumption that prestige fragrance, you know, keeps growing and, you know, is really a high contributor to this growth.
It is really, you know, assumption remains, you know, in the high single digit. This is really. Again, you see that, you know, the last 2 years confirms that there is, you know, increasing potential. The demand is very strong, and we are seeing, especially in U.S., penetration is increasing.
We have facts, we have data, and this is again what's giving us full confidence to confirm this full-year guidance and also confirm, you know, the Mid-term algorithm.
Nothing to add.
Secondly, we ask Sue if you wanna finish.
Yes. Again, thank you. Very simply, I hope now you're more convinced, if not totally convinced. Let's see how you. I know you will judge on the results, which is the way we will do it too. I think we've presented today a lot of things that not a lot of companies have in hand, be it R&D, you know, IPs, marketing know-how, consumer understanding.
Of course, we cannot present to you the Go-To-Market strategies that are starting to be implemented since a few months now, accelerating in the coming months. Thank you very much for your attention. I propose now that we go to visit the 2 brands in the brand immersive, you know, rooms that are just nearby.
I just ask you to do one thing: leave your phones on the table, because we don't want you to take pictures of things that are really, you know, preview sometimes. I would love you to keep this here so that you can experience this without sharing too much outside. Thank you very much. Bye-Bye.
Thank you.
The teams and