Wella Company Celebrates Its First Year as an Independent Company by Exceeding Growth Targets, Introducing Breakthrough Innovation and Broadening Leadership Capabilities

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Wella Company, a global leader in the $100 billion beauty industry, today celebrates its one-year anniversary as a stand-alone company. Wella Company has a top professional and retail hair, beauty tech and nail portfolio of iconic brands including Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin, Sebastian Professional and ghd. The Company, founded in Germany in 1880, returned to independent operating status on December 1, 2020, led by global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts (“KKR”) investing a majority-equity stake, which they have twice increased over the past year.

Wella Company emerged in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, during which almost the entire professional salon industry – the company’s core customer base – was in lockdown. Despite this challenging global environment, the company set its growth strategy, focused on building the operating foundation for stand-alone success, and hired nearly 1,100 people across the globe, including a roster of top beauty, retail and Consumer Packaged Goods leaders on its executive team.

“In our company’s first year, our team has much to be proud of. We achieved independent status at a difficult time for the beauty industry and have posted strong revenue growth compared against both 2020 and 2019. Our fiscal year, which began on July 1^st, has started strong. Our overall business is very healthy, and our financial performance is over-delivering against our annual targets across every business and every geography,” said Annie Young-Scrivner, CEO of Wella Company. “We are poised for growth across the globe. We remain focused on delighting customers and consumers with differentiated product innovations, and we will continue to expand across channels and geographies as we unlock the potential of our brands.”

Product Performance and Innovation

Wella Company has a robust product innovation pipeline which is already producing results in this first year.

Highlights from our Wella Professionals flagship umbrella brand, include:

1. True Grey, for consumers who embrace their greys, signed up 10 salons every hour in the first two months across the EMEA region.
2. Koleston Perfect, the world’s best-selling permanent professional hair color, has reached a new benchmark – one tube is purchased every second globally.
3. Wella Professional Hair Care line sales continue to deliver strong double-digit growth worldwide.

The two biggest brands in the company’s retail hair portfolio, Clairol and Wella, have benefited from reinvestment and brand overhaul. Clairol is now posting strong share gains over seven consecutive months. On the Wella Retail front, the brand delivered a record market share of 24 percent in Mexico and currently holds the No.1 market position in the Middle East and is also the No. 1 premium brand in Brazil.

OPI, Los Angeles-based leading nail brand known for its memorable shade names, launched its first natural-origin vegan nail lacquer, Nature Strong, in over 20 markets this summer. Nature Strong has performed even better than anticipated, helping the portfolio grow double digits.

Throughout 2021, Nioxin grew net revenue double-digits over 2020, as more consumers focused on in-home self-care and treatments, including for scalp care and hair loss, during the pandemic.

London-based ghd (good hair day) is redefining beauty tech. ghd leveraged its proprietary hair technology to launch Unplugged, a cordless styler that is coveted across the globe. Their consistent double-digit growth increased as they launched into the China market, selling 2,500 stylers in five minutes.

Industry Commitment

Supporting the salon industry artists to stay ahead of trends and hone their craft and skill sets is part of Wella Company’s DNA. Throughout the last year, Wella Company offered hundreds of online education classes to inspire and train stylists. In April, when most of the world was still in lockdown, the Company produced its first global virtual event “WeCreate,” convening industry-leading stylists and educators to tap new skills and rediscover their passion for the craft to enable successfully reopening their salons after lockdown. WeCreate reached more than 100 thousand beauty professionals across 100 countries, and the company donated the course fee to give back to the industry – an investment worth approximately $30 million.

“We are privileged to support the salon industry and believe in the power of lifting up the stylists and technicians who make it so unique,” said Young-Scrivner. “These small business owners are the backbone of their communities. We believe that when the industry succeeds, we do too. Our support for beauty salon owners across the globe is just one way we are building a purpose-led business.”

Leadership

Wella Company’s leadership team includes executives from across Europe, Asia, Brazil and the U.S. and nearly half are women. The company continues to invest in top talent. The most recent appointments made in November extend the global beauty industry capability of the management team:

Yannis Rodocanachi, who has been appointed President, Americas. Yannis brings extensive global beauty experience, having worked with both blue-chip consumer products companies and in high growth private equity-backed hair and beauty startups. He spent nearly 20 years at L’Oréal, expanding hair and beauty portfolios globally, and worked across sales, marketing and general management in Europe, Asia and the U.S. For the last two years, he has been CEO of LA-based BH Cosmetics, where he led the Gen Z-targeted company’s transformation to a diverse, equitable, and sustainable business, while scaling for growth in direct-to-consumer.

Emmanuel Miran, who has joined in the newly created role of Chief Global Technology Officer, a move integrating and accelerating the company’s digital and technology ambitions under one organization. Miran brings extensive beauty, CPG, media and healthcare experience, and has served in multiple leadership roles including CIO, CTO and CDO, leveraging and monetizing data and technology to drive growth. He spent more than 16 years with L’Oréal in digital and technology leadership roles. Prior he served as Chief Technology and Digital Officer for Mondelez International, News Corp. and most recently International SOS.

The Company’s management team also includes the additions of Global Chief Financial Officer Virginie Costa; Global Chief People Officer Gretchen Koback Pursel; and President of Global Brands and Global Chief Marketing Officer Hugh Dineen, who all joined in August. Costa is one of only seven female global CFOs among the top 25 beauty companies.

Wella Company now has more than 6,000 employees across more than 100 countries. Currently, 57 percent of Wella’s employees globally are women and 45 percent of the women at Wella are at the Director level and above. Since December 1, 2020, nearly 70 percent of new hires have been women and about 60 percent of the total promotions at the company have been earned by women.

“We are an industry built on the backbone of women – salon colorists, stylists, nail technicians. In fact, nearly 90 percent of the professional salon industry in the US and UK are comprised of women – but a negligible number are owners of the businesses,” noted Young-Scrivner. “We want to support the success of the industry overall and believe that means doing our part to support women in this industry.”

About Wella Company

Wella Company is one of the world’s leading beauty companies, comprised of a family of iconic brands including Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin, Sebastian Professional and ghd. At Wella Company, we are innovators who seek to inspire consumers and beauty professionals through our brands to look, feel, and be their true selves. We are committed to building the best beauty company in the industry where our 6,000+ employees across more than 100 countries can bring their best selves to work. Guided by our company values and led by purpose to deliver positive impact on people, through our products and towards our planet and society, we deliver sustainable growth to all stakeholders. For more information on Wella Company, visit www.wellacompany.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.