Coty CEO To P&G Employees: Perfect Together

If you're a blue chip employees, don't worry about a pink slip. That's the word from Coty CEO Bart Becht as he moved to assuage Procter & Gamble employees that he really needs them following Coty's multibillion-dollar acquisition of several P&G beauty brands. Still, about 10,000 P&G employees, including 200 in Cincinnati, will be out of a job after P&G transfers the 43 brands to Coty. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2016, depending on regulatory approval.


“This clearly has to be a … merger of the talent, where we are going to retain the best,” said Bart Becht, chairman and interim CEO for Coty. “And it will have to be a true merger also in terms of culture and ways of working in order to optimize our dream of becoming more and more of a beauty player in the industry. Ultimately, we’re looking forward for this business to be managed by a strong, well-aligned leadership team from the best talent of the two companies.”


The brands P&G will transfer to Coty account for about $5.9 billion in sales, or about 30% of P&G’s $19.5 billion in beauty segment sales for the fiscal year that ended in June 2014. P&G had total annual sales of about $83 billion.


“I don’t want to speak for Coty, but I know through every conversation I’ve had with them that they value the people that they’re going to have access to in this transaction and are interested in building further their own capabilities,” said P&G CFO Jon Moeller during a conference call with analysts. “So I expect this will be a good outcome all the way around. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on any individuals.”