Coty Reviews

Pros

Benefits and severance package, ample layoff notices, product recognition. Things were good at first, but went downhill quick. Read my Cons to find out more...

Cons

Too big for their own good, buy out the "little guys" and close plants to ship operations elsewhere, disorganized management, no core values. I worked at the Leland NC facility, originally at Rocky Point, NC manufacturing plant. Coty bought us out when we operated as Del Laboratories. While the ink on the check was still wet, Coty sold half of our product portfolio to Church & Dwight (all pharmaceutical brands ie. Orajel, etc). We were told our NC operations were still safe, however only weeks later we learned that both the Leland NC and Rocky Point NC operations would be closing. This was Cary Newman and Steve Brainard's overall plan, to walk away with a golden parachute. They officially closed Leland the DAY BEFORE CHIRSTMAS...a great holiday present. They did this to avoid having to provide all new sick/vacation days to employees had they been employed through the new year when the paid days off start.

Management at Leland NC received "retention pay" to make sure they remained on staff. Some of these individuals were asked to come to Rocky Point which is now a sinking ship as well. Coty is selling the Rocky Point operation and it's remaining employees to Medicia, a small NJ based operation, where they are offering peanuts for pay to those who will remain.

Coty came into our operation, bought out a 43yr old company, sold off most of our portfolio of brands, and kept what they wanted for themselves (Sally Hansen, N.Y.C.), and then closed 2 plants in NC, laying off over 650 people. But hey, we got a gift bag of returned/expired Coty merchandise as a christmas gift.

There have been no raises since 2007, not even cost of living. No temp employees converted to permanent, and it's been a revolving door for employees, especially management. The only reason they were able to hang onto enough personnel to close the doors is because they offered a severance package (only to full time employees) which was pay + bene's depending on the amount of years worked. Otherwise, it would have been a skeleton crew at best, as most would have jumped ship and the plants could not operate. We spent over a year in IT converting hardware, software, systems and databases to the Coty standard, and for what? Just a simple waste of time really.

Advice to Senior Management

Thanks for forgetting the "little guys" down in North Carolina. Over 650 lost their jobs so you could save a few cents by outsourcing our manufacturing and returns operations.

Pros

good work/life balance, good benefits and compensation. They care about their employees and try to do the right thing from a corporate standpoint.

Cons

Economy has changed things around a bit, not unlike many companies with the economy these days.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay focused.

Pros

Friendly environment. Great work life balance

Cons

No communication from management. No room for growth

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying about expanding and fix the issues at currently at hand first.

Pros

Exciting ideas if allowed by upper management

Cons

For the most part we put out mediocre product

Advice to Senior Management

take off the blinders

Pros

Well respected company in beauty sector. Good portfolio of brands, substantial growth past 5 years, known for developing people with excellent skills and strong work habits. Executives are paid well. No bonus payout for 2009 but company has prior history of paying very good bonuses. Can be a significant part of total compensation for Director level & above.

Cons

Flat organization with limited resources. Expect to work very hard. Economic downturn has resulted in poor 2009 results and major downsizing. Loss of many experienced employees in past 6 months. Layoffs are quietly continuing causing lots of uncertainty and major drop in morale. Remaining good people beginning to leave causing further employee churn. New management run the Beauty (Mass) division more like a traditional packaged goods company than a beauty company. Many feel the bad culture change is bad. Current morale is very low as a result of the changed culture and the loss of so many talented people.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to middle management who are much closer to the consumer & customer. Lower expectations in the near term. It is a time for "reloading". Can't expect a return to the 15% growth of pre-recession for a while. Strive for a better balance between P&G / J&J type management and operating like a beauty company. Discipline and process are good but too much turns off employees attracted to the company expecting a beauty environment.

Pros

Greatr Management. Listen to you problem and treat you as an equal. This is hard to find. Plus its a fun company to work for, always new product launches.

Cons

Your hours depend on how much you sell which can be tough in this economy or slow stores which you cant help when traffic is slow. But if you are good with your communication they should be good to you.

Advice to Senior Management

More phone calls would be helpful to freelance fragrance models to let us know exactly when and how many hours are scheduled to work.

Pros

Flex hours that allows R&D to have every other Friday off is a nice perk (though there is no guarantee of how long that work schedule will continue).

Cons

One major difference between Coty and other companies is in how it motivates its employees. Good companies motivate their people with "rewards and recognition" system. Coty motivates people with "fear and intimidation". As a result, most employees walk around Coty always fearing that the tiniest of mistakes could get them fired.

The culture of "fear and intimidation" makes people very oppose to trying new things as they are afraid of failure. In R&D, this leads to a culture very opposed to trying new things. As a result, Coty pretty much ends up recycling old products over and over and end up calling them "new".

Another issue is the overall competency of Senior management. Most of them lack the technical understanding to do their jobs. A lot of time and effort is spent on power trips & competing with other managers for useless symbols of power (fancy titles, office space, blackberry, etc.,) and very little time is spent managing their projects & developing their people.

Finally, Coty is incredibly top heavy and there just isn't career growth opportunities within R&D. As a result, they will continue to lose their good workers.

Ovearll, I wouldn't recommend Coty to anyone (well....maybe if i really hate someone, I might tell that person to go work at Coty).

Advice to Senior Management

Well, my advice would be to get rid of 90% of their Senior Management in R&D. So that would be a good start.

Pros

Best place to learn about the fragrance business. Most people have built their careers within the company.

Cons

There is a culture of "paying your dues" at lower levels that can lead to more junior employees working inefficiently and wasting time on "hot" projects that could actually be reprioritized and completed under more reasonable circumstances.

The company is also staffed very lean - which eventually leads to high turnover among the most talented and ambitious because they cannot advance until their immediate superior either advances him/herself or leaves the company.

Advice to Senior Management

You get what you pay for - reward the good employees or you'll end up with mediocre, subpar workers and performance.

Pros

Not a whole lot if you happen to work for COTY R&D. The only thing going for COTY is the Summer Hours system that results in having every other Friday off (which they threaten to take away all the time on the whim of Senior management).

Cons

Coty relies too much on their Fragrance business for profits. In tough economic times, there isn't a whole lot to fall back on since so much is dependent on fragrance business. In general, most Chemists and Senior Chemists never developed the skills needed to lead projects effectively. They are mostly a pair of hands for Directors who are too busy having contests about who has a better office space or some other ego contest. Senior management lacks the backbone to do what is right. Favoritism runs amok in R&D. The HR is basically there to do whatever the VP tells them to do. Not to pay attention to what the workers are saying. Overall, people are overworked and underpaid.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to seriously trim the Directors / Senior Directors / VP / Senior VP in the R&D organization. Need true leadership that implements innovative programs to deliver some products that can turn the Company earnings around. The last thing we need is leaders like Bernd Beetz who is being sued for cashing in his stock options and making a tidy profit at the expense of the company. The rest of the executive company is pretty much the same as Beetz.

Pros

The opportunity to get exposed to a variety of markets and people, allows you to learn new skills everyday. Coty has made numerous employee transfers to other countries, where you get to know a new culture, new language, and meet new people. It enables one to see many different approaches to problems and projects. It also widens your world view and global vision of the business. Future leaders need to be cross-functional and international work experiences really help in this regard. There is some work-balance in that you do get the holiday break off, as well as summer Fridays; and the benefits are as good as any other CPG company.

Cons

It is extremely difficult to to get promoted - especially if you are a female; they don't provide opportunities for training and development-seems only the "A" listers get to spend time and exhorbitant amounts of money attending conferences. The competence level of many employees is clearly not top notch, and working 9-5 is the norm for many employees, even when the work is not finished; management would prefer to ignore this and claim it is because you need to offer work-life balance to your employees. Processes are very cumbersome, people work in ivory towers, there is very limited recognition for a job well done, and the opportunity to move up the ladder seems to be reserved for a select few, another words, those who have curried favor with their boss rather than accomplishment based. Accountability is lacking across all functions.

Advice to Senior Management

I think the biggest concern is the lack of professional development for staff. There are limited budgets, if any at all, to train and develop staff and this lack of training and development hinders professional development. I would also say that the infrastructure to manage the business is so obsolete and old fashioned - the systems are frustrating to use and prohibit moving at a fast pace, yet that is the expectation that everything gets done within a very short timetable.