“It is a sensible thing to do in today’s world,” said Neil Saunders, chief executive officer of retail analysis firm Conlumino. “Whilst
channels are very significant, they’re a lot less relevant than they
used to be because consumers cross-shop different channels…what’s much
more important is the overall view of a brand.”
“Everything should be consumer-centric,” said Jane Hali, ceo of retail research firm Hali & Associates. “The customer makes
connections with the brands.”
Wall Street reacted positively to the move, with the company’s stock jumping almost 7.5 percent, to $34.55 Tuesday.
Fabian Garcia, who took the helm April 15, has hammered out a top-to-bottom business structure that puts the brands in the spotlight,
instead of the distribution channels, as is usually done. “We are
shifting the axis from channels to brands,” Garcia said.
The aim of this strategy is clear. “We want to become a beauty company that plays in the top 10 of beauty companies around the world,”
said Gianni Pieraccioni, chief operating officer of markets for Revlon.
“This calls for two things — organic growth and also acquisition.”
Garcia quantified Revlon’s newly discovered ambition. He said the company’s goal is to reach a total sales volume of $5 billion in five
years. The company’s revenue total now stands at $3 billion.
In a wide-ranging interview in Revlon’s spacious headquarters with sweeping views of New York harbor, Garcia went through the math. “If we
grow ahead of the market 50 basis points for the next four years, we’re
one small acquisition away from the number,” Garcia said.
With that target in mind, Revlon is reorganizing into four divisions. Revlon and Elizabeth Arden will operate in their own
segments, Fragrances will operate as a unit, and the remaining brands
such as Almay, American Crew, Sinful Colors, Mitchum and others will
operate as the Portfolio division, Garcia explained.
“Along with that, we are creating regions so we can complement our brand-centric organization with a customer development sales
organization,” Garcia said. Revlon will have five areas of geographic
focus: North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia, Pacific
and Latin America. John Collier, currently senior vice president of the
North American consumer division, will be president of North America;
Eric Lauzat will be president of EMEA and Asia with regional vice
president Marco Ficarelli; Jaime Vazquez will be regional vice president
for LatAm; Tracey Raso will be the regional managing director for the
Pacific region, and Enrico Baldassarri will be regional managing
director for Africa.
The regions report to the chief operating officer of markets, Pieraccioni, and each brand division is led by its own president — Anne
Talley at Revlon, JuE Wong at Arden, George Cleary for Fragrances and
Sennen Pamich for the Portfolio segment. Talley is returning to Revlon
after more than a decade at L’Oréal, where she was most recently general
manager, retail strategies and business development for L’Oréal Luxe.
Wong was appointed president of Arden in mid-2015. Before the
Revlon-Arden merger, Cleary was named president, global fragrance, for
Arden. Pamich has been overseeing Revlon’s professional division for
several years and joined the company during the Colomer Group merger in
2013 (that $660 million deal added CND Shellac and American Crew to
Revlon).
