Coty said on Thursday that like-for-like revenues were down 1% to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, falling 5% to $5.8 billion for the full year. Shares dipped 7% in after-hours trading due to the company withholding its 2027 outlook.
“We closed 2026 on a stronger note, delivering sales and profit ahead of our targets, and growing free cash flow even in the face of business headwinds, all while establishing a clear strategic framework and taking decisive action to strengthen our core business in 2027 and beyond,” Markus Strobel, executive chair and interim CEO, said in a statement. The executive said that the Coty.Curated strategic framework has now entered execution, with the rightsizing of Coty’s commercial organization, consumer beauty R&D, and global brand marketing functions underway.
Strobel said that the company is encouraged to see closer alignment between its sell-in and sell-out numbers. That said, he noted that Coty remains uncontent with its sell-out performance, which remains below market levels in both prestige and consumer beauty divisions, and that closing the gap is a priority across the organization.
In the fourth quarter, prestige beauty revenues declined 0.5% to $771.8 million, while consumer beauty revenues declined 3% to $497.4 million. For the full year, prestige beauty was down 4% to 3.8 billion, while consumer beauty fell 7% to $2 billion. Coty noted that major prestige beauty launches throughout the year performed well, including Boss Bottled Beyond, Cosmic by Kylie Jenner Intense, and Calvin Klein Euphoria Elixirs, and that the online launch of makeup under Marc Jacobs Beauty is off to a strong start, with online sell-out at Sephora beating targets. In consumer, Coty noted early progress such as sell-out improvement in the US for CoverGirl and Sally Hansen.
By region, Coty’s Q4 Americas revenues were up 6% to $554.7 million, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) revenues fell 10% to $528.9 million, and Asia-Pacific rose 7% to $185.6 million. For the full year, Americas revenues fell 3% to $2.3 billion, EMEA was down 8% to $2.7 billion, and Asia-Pacific revenues were flat at $721.9 million.
Looking ahead, 2027 will be a “transition year”, Strobel said, with Coty only providing guidance for the first quarter at this stage. The company expects Q1 2027 revenues to decline by a low to mid-single-digit percentage. Coty also named Soraya Benchikh as its new CFO to steer its next growth phase, succeeding Laurent Mercier.
“We have important strengths to build on, including leading brands, strong category positions, solid cash generation, and a differentiated end-to-end global platform,” Strobel said. “We are confident that our focused Coty.Curated framework will unlock Coty’s significant potential and steadily translate into shareholder value in the years ahead.”
Coty is currently developing plans to mitigate the impact of the Gucci Beauty license exit on sales and profit in fiscal 2028. “These plans include accelerating our core brands; maximizing the contribution from new portfolio additions, including makeup under Marc Jacobs Beauty and fragrances under Swarovski, Etro, and Marni; and lowering our cost structure through a significant fixed cost reduction program,” the interim CEO said. “These actions are designed to mitigate the FY28 impact and position Coty to accelerate growth across our core portfolio and drive profit expansion in FY29 and beyond.”
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