Coty hires KKR executive as Chief Transformation Officer

Published: 29-May-2020

The hire follows Coty selling its Professional Beauty brands to investment firm KKR

Coty has hired KKR executive Gordon von Bretten as its Chief Transformation Officer.

The appointment comes as the cosmetics conglomerate sold a majority stake of its Professional Beauty division – which includes OPI, Clairol and ghd – to the investment firm for US$750m in May.

As part of the deal, Coty's hair care brand Wella now operates as a standalone business, of which KKR owns 60% and Coty the remaining 40%.

von Bretten most recently served as Managing Director of KKR, but has now been tasked with "amplifying the transformational journey" of Coty.

In recent years, the 116-year-old company has been struggling to hit the mark with consumers, its sales slipped by 8% to $8.6bn in its last financial year ended June 2019, from $9.4bn in 2018.

In July 2019, the firm unveiled its turnaround plan which included reshuffling its executive team, moving its headquarters out of New York, US, offloading flailing brands and focusing on brand building efforts.

Coty acquired a majority stake of the popular Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin brand in January and has recently expanded the television personality-founded brand into bricks-and-mortar in Europe.

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