Financial focus: Coty, Kosé, Perfect Diary and more in our beauty business update

Perfect Diary bets on China’s makeup rebound to ‘turn around’ recent slump​​

Chinese cosmetic company Yatsen Holdings is banking on the recovery of makeup in China to steer flagship brand Perfect Dairy back to growth.

The decline of its colour cosmetics business was attributed to the weak consumer sentiment in China’s beauty industry.

However, the firm was confident that the consumer market was “well on its way to recovery in 2023” ​and would positively affect its makeup business, especially its flagship brand Perfect Diary.

Coty aims to double China sales to over $600m on the back of prestige fragrance potential​

American beauty multinational Coty is counting on China’s prestige fragrance boom to drive ambition to more than double sales in China to over $600m.

Coty could benefit from a number of growth drivers in China, especially as the market was reopening after prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns.

CEO Sue Y. Nabi also noted the rapidly increasing demand for prestige fragrances, of which Coty specialises, among Chinese consumers.

Pola aims to increase China revenue by 50% on the back of offline expansion​

Japanese luxury beauty brand Pola is targeting to grow revenue in China by about 50% as it focuses on reinforcing its brick-and-mortar store network.

The company believes this would be integral to enhancing its brand’s presence and driving growth in China.

“The strategy for mainland China is not campaign driven but based on improving the customer experience, mainly through offline activities. To achieve this, Pola will accelerate store openings and further expand customer contact points, said ​Yoshikazu Yokote, president of Pola Orbis.

Luxury niche fragrances buck recession trend in Korea – Shinsegae​

Shinsegae International has observed that economic fears are not deterring consumers from purchasing luxury niche fragrances, believing they have replaced lipstick as the new recession-proof commodity.

The retailer believes that luxury niche fragrances were the new barometer of consumer demand.

"Instead of lipsticks, which sold well during recessions, niche perfumes are now taking their place. Niche perfumes have a high repurchase rate and as the economic downturn is expected to continue for a longer period of time, the demand for them is expected to increase.”​

Kosé China targets 10% sales increase on the back of ‘revenge consumption’​

Japanese cosmetics firm Kosé is aiming to increase sales in China by 10%, believing consumer consumption will bounce back with the lift of COVID-19 restrictions.

With China on its reopening path this year, the company believes it can capitalise on the recovery to grow its sales in China.

“In China, we have a bullish plan for a 10% YoY increase in sales in anticipation of revenge consumption in 2Q and beyond due to the lifting of the zero-COVID policy​,” CFO Shinichi Mochizuki