Guilhem Souche, SVP, Global Travel Retail for Coty.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Guilhem Souche, SVP, Global Travel Retail for Coty tells TRBusiness how the beauty powerhouse is drawing on its fragrance heritage to accelerate its three-axis growth strategy for travel retail, with targeted digital reach and exciting brand activations key to commanding the attention of today’s busy travellers.

It’s a pivotal year for Coty, with its landmark 120th anniversary celebrations highlighting how the company has transformed dramatically from a pioneering small French fragrance house to a global beauty powerhouse with an impressively strong portfolio of brands.

“Our goal is to share with our partners the latest innovations and what we can do in terms of retail and brand activations, including how we want to bring alive the brands in the stores,” Souche told TRBusiness in an exclusive, face-to-face interviewing during the 2024 TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes.

In FY24, travel retail accounted for 9% of the company’s sales, generating robust trends in all three regions (Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific) and fuelling reported net revenue growth of roughly 20% (like for like). Double-digit percentage revenue growth is also targeted for FY25.

“FY24 was a very good year,” said Souche. “The results were due to a very strong pace of innovation in the three categories and we gained market share in fragrances, make-up and skincare.

‘This year we’re quite positive also for several reasons. Firstly, we see the [passenger] traffic keeps on growing. This is extremely exciting for our industry. As we have spoken about with the airports, conversion can become a challenge as there is a lot of competition from smartphones.

“I think it’s making our job even more interesting. Catching this flow of travellers that keeps on growing and converting and engaging them with our brands is [something that is] exciting.

“We know in the next 10 years, traffic will double. We know many of the key airports in terms of traffic will be in Asia. So that’s really reinforcing the strategy we have, and how we keep investing in airports [in the region] to capture the traffic and reinforce our presence in Asia.

“We still see that people enjoy shopping,” he added. “We see the dwell time is the same and is not slowing. So, it’s an opportunity and a challenge – we need to bring people into the stores.”

Coty Travel Retail unveils a series of Boss cross-category pop-up activations at key airport locations across Europe and the Americas from June 2024, which celebrated the spirit of football through ablend of sports, fashion and fragrance. 

As Souche outlined, this can be done in several ways.

“Firstly digitally – identifying who is coming to the airport and catching their attention,” he said. “But also through exciting activations such as the cross-category ‘kick a ball’ pop-up activations for BOSS fragrances at key airports across Europe and the Americas, which coincided with Copa America and the Euros.

“It was a huge success – people were stopping and engaging. It was extremely relevant to the time. So there are plenty of ways. You have to be more relevant and attractive to bring people in.

“When you manage to do that, you are more compelling and will build a better relationship with the customer. There are some challenges that push you to be better – that’s the way I see it.”

Three-axis acceleration

Coty Travel Retail is present in approximately 1,400 key airports around the world.

Currently the company is focused on improving the spaces it has alongside elevating the presence of brands, by extending or expanding ranges such as that of Gucci and Burberry make-up.

Chloé Ateliers des Fleurs has been amping up its presence in travel retail throughout 2024 with a series of new openings, including ultra-luxury flagship stores in key destinations across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The goal is to double the current number of doors from 100 in the coming years.

This involves reengineering certain spaces to reflect the three-axes of the company. As a case in point, this includes introducing more ‘traffic-stopping’ Chloé Ateliers des Fleurs trollies into appropriate airport stores.

Furthermore, Coty is working to expand certain brands in new territories, such as Kylie Cosmetics, which has been a runaway success with Gen Z in the travel retail space.

“We started [with Kylie] in the Americas, as well as North and South Europe, and now it’s also working very well in Asia, including Southeast Asia in destinations such as Singapore. It’s about to launch in Thailand and is already big in India,” explained Souche.

Coty is also expanding Lancaster’s geographical footprint – namely to Latin America, as well as further into Asia (beyond Singapore and Korea) – building on its strong following in Europe for its premium suncare.

Coty Travel Retail launched Gucci Flora Gorgeous Orchid Eau de Parfum at major international airports worldwide in July, making travel retail one of the exclusive channels to offer the scent ahead of its rollout in all designated global locations. 

“We are also expanding the skincare presence in the Americas and Asia,” he added. “Lancaster is an expert on tackling photoageing.”

Channelling the next big opportunity

Souche sees the importance of travel retail as a medium for fast, global exposure that presents huge opportunities for its brands.

Its carefully crafted activations not only capture traveller interest, but also demonstrate to its brand partners how Coty is able to elevate their brands in the channel.

“This is opening a lot of doors in a lot of territories,” he explained. “They [brands] are eager to try new things in our channel.”

The aforementioned cross-category approach by Hugo Boss  is a great example of this. It was so successful that the approach is set to continue, albeit with a new theme each year.

“It’s showing that we can bring new customers to the brand,” he emphasised. “It is also prompting new brands to come to us.”

Coty is set to expand Lancaster’s geographical footprint – namely to Latin America, as well as further into Asia (beyond Singapore and Korea) – building on its strong following in Europe for its premium suncare.

Souche wouldn’t be drawn on any new licenses incoming. However, we can certainly expect big things from Coty over the next few months.

Famous for fragrance

True to the company’s roots, fragrances still comprise the biggest axis of its ever-growing portfolio.

Guilhem Souche, SVP, Global Travel Retail for Coty met with TRBusiness’ Faye Bartle during the 2024 TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes.

“It’s a great place to be because fragrances have been booming in the past year and it keeps on building,” he said.

“In fragrances, we are very balanced in terms of our brand portfolio. We can start with an entry price with consumer beauty brands like Adidas, have some iconic brands like Burberry and BOSS  and through to the very niche, like Infiniment Coty Paris,  which was launched during Coty’s 120th anniversary year.

“This enables to capture all the consumers, whatever their region, olfactive taste and basket they want to spend.”

Coty has also made great progress in the past year with its couture make-up brands, with cult classics emerging such as the Burberry Beyond Wear Perfecting Matte Foundation.

“Even Gen Z, when they go to the gym, they wear foundation so it’s really relevant,” he said.

Skincare is another key priority for the company and one that is amping up in travel retail for the long term.

Key launches in the company’s Q1 2025 (for the three months ended September 30, 2024) include Gucci Flora Orchid, which was released as a travel retail exclusive pre-launch, Chloé EDP Intense, and Burberry Goddess Intense – just some of the big hitters.

Winning the consumer vote

Coty walked away with a clutch of trophies at this year’s consumer-voted Global Travel Retail Awards including winning Best Fragrance Product 2024, sponsored by KEX Confectionery, for Gucci Guilty Elixir PH Parfum for Women 60ml, and Best Sustainable Initiative 2024, sponsored by Anora, for The Ultimate Upcycling: Pioneering the use of Recycled Carbon Emissions in Fine Fragrances.

Markus Stauss, VP Global Marketing Travel Retail and Guilhem Souche, SVP, Global Travel Retail for Coty with their 2024 Global Travel Retail Awards trophies.

The company also clocked up an astonishing three Highly Recommended accolades and 13 Finalists nods in the independent judged awards programme.

“It matters a lot,” said Souche of the achievements. “We know that storytelling is important but what matters most in the end is the quality of the product – that’s very important for us.”

On the Best Sustainable Initiative win he added: “This is very important for us as, with our Beauty That Lasts platform, sustainability is very important. We are famous for fragrance. Fragrances contain  a lot of ethanol, so this ethanol is  sustainable as it is coming from carbon capture – it’s really something that is a gamechanger for us. We can lead on this in the long term, and the award is showing that our efforts on sustainability are paying off and not going unrecognised.”

Key goals include further growing its footprint of top luxury locations in the channel (especially for fragrance) and developing its omnichannel campaigns – all with a strong sustainability statement.

“There will always be headwinds, especially when you are working in a global territory,” he said. “There is always a region that is doing better or worse. But what is important is knowing where you want to go and to keep on pushing in that direction.”

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