In the thick of 2020’s first lockdown, beauty giant Coty shook up the beauty world with the news that it was to divest its Professional Beauty and Retail Hair businesses to US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).
The jewel in the crown of KKR’s purchase was Wella Professionals, the hair care label founded in 1880 by German hairdresser Franz Ströher and bought by Coty from Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 2016.
It was not alone, however. Other well-loved brands divested as part of the Wella Professionals sale were Clairol, Nioxin, Sebastian Professional, ghd and nail brand OPI, all grouped together under the newly-formed title Wella Company.
And with the new company, which officially launched in December, came a new CEO, with the former head of Godiva Chocolatier, Annie Young-Scrivner, taking on the leadership role.
While Young-Scrivner has helmed Wella Company for less than a year, her leadership has ushered in some positive changes for the company’s portfolio brands, which had, dare it be said, been a bit neglected while part of Coty’s sprawling family.
“This is a company that KKR has looked at several times,” Young-Scrivner tells Cosmetics Business. “And one of the things that they realised is investment on brand innovation probably wasn't where it needed to be.”
The intervening months have seen something of a turnaround, as the financials suggest.
“When we started in December, the second wave had not yet hit and we had financial metrics that went from December to June – and what we feel really good about is that, despite the unplanned second wave, we exceeded those financial metrics. And I think there were a couple of ways in which we did that,” she adds.
“One is we really connected with the professional industry to understand what their needs are and created innovation that they could still use.”
Here, she flags up Wella Professionals Color Fresh Mask, a hair glossing treatment to maintain or enhance colour at-home that “was so innovative that competitor salons who actually had someone else's brand wanted to take it in!”
Some parts of the business also benefitted from some pandemic-specific consumer behaviour. OPI, for example, performed well as “nails are really amplified” adds Young-Scrivner, while demand for electronic styling brand ghd “really exploded” because of consumers’ increased use of digital communication.
“If you think about it, how many times before Covid were you on a video call versus during Covid?” Asks Young-Scrivner. “And you're looking at yourself, you’re looking at your hair. So we also leveraged on that to give tips and so forth.”
Swerving pandemic problems
Of course, while the pandemic may have thrown up unforeseen benefits, it simultaneously dealt a blow to the hairdressing industry and the salons with whom Wella Company partners.
“I don't think any industry was immune to Covid, but we were pretty significantly impacted on the professional side,” Young-Scrivner says.
While the primary concern was, naturally, the safety of Wella Company staff, the company then began looking at ways to help those in the industry earn a living – and it did so by leveraging digital in two different ways.
“One is the click-and-collect, whereby – if it was allowed – they could still transact with their customers. The second thing was the opportunity to educate, so that they [hair professionals] still feel refreshed, they still feel connected,” explains Young-Scrivner.
“We actually did quite a bit of education, which was free for all professionals, regardless of their brand affiliation. Specifically, the example I will give you is #WeCreate. That was an online event that we did in April of this year. Normally, we would have charged around £200, but we waived that charge. And we touched 100,000 people within a week.
“It was best practices from every part of the region of the world, top people, and new capabilities and skill sets. So, when the economy opened up and salons opened up, the professional was ready to go.”
She adds that the company gave back to the industry via donations, including to the Hair and Beauty Charity, while delaying the payment terms of some of its most vulnerable partners during lockdown to help with their cash flow.
Brand focus
Something Wella Company is pushing for is the amplification of its brands, which had “been milked for a while”, while at the same time being “under-invested”. And there is now a lot going on in terms of launch activity.
New under the Wella Professionals flagship is True Grey, a 15-minute salon “silver glow service” to cater to that “segment of consumers who have exited colour and are staying grey.
Early next year Wella also has one of its biggest innovations, slated to launch globally.
Also in 2021, ghd launched Unplugged, its first ever cordless styler, which tops at 185°C for optimal styling without damage. It’s an innovation that has been received with much applause “both on the pro side and on the consumer side”, according to Young-Scrivner.
Then there is new ‘eco-ethical’ brand weDo. Initially introduced in Sweden in 2019, prior to the divestment, it has since been rolled out internationally and currently serves as something of a template for future launches across the portfolio.
As Young-Scrivner notes: “The liquid inside is more eco-ethical, the packaging is more ethical and, while we are super-proud of the launch, we're also leveraging weDo not just as a brand, but as a mindset on how we could think about things differently for the future.
“So what we've learned from weDo is also embedded in other brands, and there's gonna be more innovation coming out from our other lines.”
Such is the case with OPI’s latest launch Nature Strong, the nail label’s first natural-origin, vegan nail lacquer in 30 highly-pigmented shades with seven-day wear, providing the effect that wearers expect from OPI while taking it in a more natural direction.
Young-Scrivner adds that while packaging, CO2 reduction and water usage – both in the products themselves but also during use – are big priorities, “we’re [also] looking at what we can teach our salon owners, so that the salons can be more productive”.
Such sustainability moves will undoubtedly have a positive impact given that Wella Company works with 500,000 salons across 100 countries.
Eye on global trends
This broad reach has other benefits, too, for example, facilitating access to local trends and cross-pollination between regions.
“What I love about Wella is the passion that all our Wella family members have, and how we connect to the industry through our ambassadors, ‘passionistas’ and influencers,” Young-Scrivner tells Cosmetics Business.
“When you're a global company, you can take the trends that are happening in Brazil and share them with the world, and vice versa, what's happening in London, but also in Asia – and you can cross-pollinate, and that germinates into new ideas and new innovation.”
When pressed for an example, she adds: “TikTok and the Korean K-pop scene is really creating a lot of trends in hair and nail, and that's migrating much faster because TikTok was so Asia focused and now it's everywhere.
“Videos and social media are making trends move much faster. Four months ago, we were talking about the ‘wolf cut’ [early 2021’s biggest cut, sitting half way between a mullet and a shag], and how you can highlight the wolf cut, because all the kids were doing wolf cuts!”
And, while Japan remains Wella Company’s principal market in Asia, the company is very much ramping up its activity in China, and leveraging on Tmall and social media to do so. In April, for instance, ghd entered the China market for the first time via a Tmall flagship store.
Team building
Another area that Young-Scrivner appears passionate about is building the right team for Wella Company – and doing that with an eye on championing the role of women in the boardroom.
Last month, a Wella Company leadership reshuffle was announced, revealing the appointments of Virginie Costa as Global Chief Financial Officer from Godiva; Gretchen Koback Pursel as Global Chief People Officer from Tiffany & Co; and Hugh Dineen, a veteran of Avon and Johnson & Johnson, as President of Global Brands and Global Chief Marketing Officer.
As Young-Scrivner notes: “90% of the industry is women but, when you look at the top, the majority of the decision-makers are still men. I always want to hire the best person, because, as a woman, you never want to get the job just because you’re a woman.
“So, what I share with my team is: I expect the slate to be very diverse. And then we pick the best person. So if the slate isn't diverse, give me a diverse slate!
“I've been really proud that since we've started, 70% of the 300 people that we have hired have been women – and we did not say ‘let's go hire women’, we said, ‘let's hire the best’.”
For Young-Scrivner, fostering a working community that shares the right dive and ethos is essential to the future success of Wella Company.
She continues: “At the end of the day, it will always come down to people. You can have great brands and great innovation, but if you don't own the minds and hearts of your people, you won't win. Because it's not ever about an individual, it's about the collective and how you galvanise everybody to move forward in the same way.”
While Young-Scrivner’s background might be from outside of the beauty industry, there are synergies, she notes, between her former role at Godiva and Wella Company, especially “this interest in focusing on the consumer, figuring out what are the friction points and the need to create innovation”.
“There is also similarity with the brands; Godiva was founded in 1926 and you have us [Wella] founded 140 years ago – and it’s [about] this transformation of a brand, the elevating of the brand.”
So what elevation can the industry expect to see from Wella going forward?
“They should expect more innovation coming out!” Young-Scrivner enthuses. “And then, really, just the culture that we want to create: we want to amplify and be partners to the professional industry for which we have an extraordinarily high respect.
“And also pushing the envelope on how we can leverage technology… how we could do things even better.”
