Citing personal reasons, the company announced Delpani’s departure last Friday. And, according to industry reports, his successor will be named “soon.”
One new leadership position has been announced, however. The Revlon board just approved the appointment of Gianni Pieraccioni as the Company’s chief operating officer.
He’s sticking around
Delpani isn’t finished with Revlon. He will work as a paid advisor to the company.
And, he will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors, which includes Ronald Perelman, David L. Kennedy, Debra G. Perelman, and Barry F. Schwartz, all of MacAndrews & Forbes; Alan S. Bernikow of Deloitte & Touche; Viet D. Dinh of Bancroft; Meyer Feldberg of Morgan Stanley who’s also Dean Emeritus of Columbia Business School; Robert K. Kretzman, a previous executive vice president at Revoln; Ceci Kurzman of the Nexus Management Group; Tamara Mellon of TMellon Enterprises; and Cristiana Falcone Sorrell of the World Economic Forum.
Good for business
The resignation was sudden but investors have responded favorably. In fact, Johanna Bennett writing for Barons says, “investors are thrilled” with this development and “can expect more upside” from Revlon as a result.
All the same, Delapni is proud of his 3+ years with the company: “It has been a pleasure and privilege to lead this extraordinary company during a period of transformation and growth. It has been my mission to continue Revlon’s industry leading commitment to quality and innovation and it is the Revlon team’s relentless drive towards those goals that has paved the way for our current and future success,” says Delpani in a press release.
What’s next?
The company has been toying with change for several weeks now. In mid-January, Revlon’s majority shareholder Ron Perelman filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission declaring that he (or rather his investment firm MacAndrews & Forbes) was exploring strategic alternatives for the beauty company.
Perlman, through the firm, owns a 77.6% stake in Revlon and at the time of the filing was presumably aiming to sell off the investment.
2015 financial results
News of Delpani’s departure has overshadowed the company’s yearend results. Net sales for Q4 came in at $521.9m, a 4.2% improvement; while net sales for the year ending December 31, 2015 were down 1.4% to $1,914.3m.
Sales in the US were up in 2015 by $21.8m led by Revlon color cosmetics, Mitchum deodorants, and Revlon ColorSilk hair color, according to the company’s report. The Almay color cosmetics brand didn’t perform so well, and offset sales gains. Similarly, CND nail products brought sales for the company’s professional segment down.