Coty - Q1 2025 (Q&A)

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. My name is Angela, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Coty's first quarter fiscal 2025 question and answer conference call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, November 7th, 2024, at 10:30 A.M. Eastern Time or 4:30 P.M. Central European Time. Please note that on November 6th, at approximately 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time or 10:30 P.M. Central European Time, Coty issued a press release and prepared remarks webcast, which can be found on its investor relations website. On today's call are Sue Nabi, Chief Executive Officer, and Laurent Mercier, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind you that many of the comments today may contain forward-looking statements.

Please refer to Coty's earnings release and the reports filed with the SEC, where the company lists factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. In addition, except where noted, the discussion of Coty's financial results and Coty's expectations reflects certain adjustments as specified in the non-GAAP financial measures section of the company's release. With that, we will now open the line for questions. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Once again, that is star one to ask a question. We will pause for a moment to allow questions to queue. We'll go first to Ashley Helgans with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Sydney on for Ashley. Thank you for taking our question. I was just wondering, can you talk about the channel shift in outperformance online? Do you expect to see a continued shift, and do you feel that there is a higher level of trust for consumers to purchase online from platforms like Amazon? Thank you.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

Good afternoon, this is Sue. So indeed, you're absolutely right to point out to online as one of the outperformers of the company. Today, this has become almost the biggest channel for Coty as a channel for the Coty e-com to date. And this indeed is fueled by retailers.com, but also by Amazon.com and pure players also that are acting on the beauty segment. So we believe this has to do a lot, and we had this question already, I think, in the previous earnings call. It has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of Gen Zs, a lot of younger consumers are connecting online with their communities, with their favorite influencers, hence the importance of advocacy marketing, and therefore the conversion online between the advocacy ecosystem on one side, on which, by the way, the company has been doing big progress.

I'll say a few words about this in two minutes. The conversion from this ecosystem of advocacy online to sales online is the most natural and the most obvious, in fact. That's the reason why we believe this online channel can only grow. By the way, this is one of the reasons why we are also seeing disruptions in the mass channel, but also on other channels around the world, because a lot of consumers today are using the convenience, sorry, of shopping online. Coming now to Coty, you've seen that we've been working hard since two years and a half now to put in place a playbook, which we started to implement behind Rimmel and CoverGirl, with results that you have seen in our prepared remarks presentation that are outstanding. Number four for both brands, 40% of growth for Rimmel, 80% of growth for CoverGirl.

And this is exactly what we were working on. So remember, repositioning the brands, creating products that have the ability to viralize, putting in place an ecosystem that's around advocacy marketing, retail marketing, retail.com marketing, sorry. And this explains our outperformance and the outperformance at large of the online channel in the U.S., but not only in the U.S., it's happening all around the world.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Robert Ottenstein with Evercore ISI.

Robert Ottenstein (Senior Managing Director and Partner)

Great. Thank you very much. I'm picking up through some of the emails I'm getting from investors that there may be some confusion in some of your commentary about the medium-term outlook, that somehow maybe it's changed or the algorithm has changed, either explicitly or implicitly. So there's just some confusion there. So I was wondering if maybe you could just kind of reinforce what is the message, what is the outlook, is there any real change that's going on here? Thank you very much.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

Robert, thank you very much for your question. So in fact, the reality is that we continue to say and see that the beauty market medium-term growth would be around 3%-5%. We continue to see Coty outperforming these levels of growth for the beauty market, and we continue to see a steady growth for our gross margin, for our EBITDA margin, and our EPS growth. So this is really to say it again and again, this is really what we are seeing. We believe this fiscal 2024 is a transition year, mainly due to all the changes, mainly channel changes and changes that are happening in consumers' shopping behaviors, including the question I just had recently on the online performance, and by the way, where Coty is gaining market share in both divisions.

So, this year, we believe, is a transition year that once this transition and the different blocks will be in place all around the world, but also in the U.S., the 3%-5% medium-term vision for the beauty market, which we believe is going to continue to be the most resilient market among all industries, are going to give us this ability to have the full confidence in our fiscal 2025 profit delivery and free cash flow, and therefore looking at shareholder returns, and of course, continued delivering of the company.

All the fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 and beyond growth drivers, such as new licenses, we are about to announce a new signature in the coming weeks or months, skincare has a new category, new regions, and we were very wise to not bet on one country and to open the scope to many different regions, namely what we call Growth Engines regions. All this together, plus fragrances, which is the number one growth driver of the company, and now extending to ultra premium, where we have a huge amount of white space, but also to mass fragrances, where we have also as well a huge amount of white space, including in terms of robust profitability for the Consumer Beauty division. This is what gives us this confidence that we are going to continue to deliver on our commitments. Laurent, maybe you want to add something that's.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

No, absolutely.

So we need to build on Sue's comments. So definitely number one, I mean, definitely full confidence to deliver our profit and cash in fiscal 2025. So this is really number one. And definitely that we are going to improve our EBITDA margin this year, close to 100 basis points. So it's going to bring our EBITDA margin close to 19%. So it means that in the last three, four years, in fact, we are growing our EBITDA margin above 250 basis points. And indeed, looking ahead, we continue to overperform the beauty market, and we continue indeed to improve our gross margin and EBITDA margin.

So all the actions that we are putting in place, so definitely all the levers in terms of gross margin as we have delivered over the last years, now we are above 65%, and we are going to continue thanks to all the actions in terms of productivity, mix, pricing, and also we are working definitely to continue to optimize our SG&A. And this is exactly what I shared during the call, that we are accelerating our productivity initiatives. We have already a lot of actions in the pipeline, and we are adding some new initiatives. And as you know, I mean, Coty has demonstrated, I mean, really its ability and the teams really to accelerate this kind of productivity program. So indeed, I mean, there is full confidence in the algorithm on all metrics, P&L, and balance sheet.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

And by the way, should I add that we are continuing to outperform all our comparative peers? You've seen this in the last nine out of the last 13 quarters, and this is really what we intend to continue to do.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Korinne Wolfmeyer with Piper Sandler.

Korinne Wolfmeyer (VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst of Beauty and Wellness)

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I'd love to hear a little bit about some of the early signals that you've seen here in fiscal Q2 from a sell-in perspective across both mass and Prestige. Any color you can give on what you're seeing between that sell-in versus sell-out differential and how you're thinking about that for the remainder of the year? And then additionally, as you talk about, as you think about your partners with your various retail partnerships, how are you viewing the risk of those partnerships as we head into the back half of the year, especially as some of them are right-sizing their store fleets and going through some of their own challenges themselves? Thanks.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, thank you, Corinne, for your questions. So I mean, first of all, let me remind really, I mean, on the Q1 performance. So indeed, I mean, we indicated a few weeks ago that we will be between 4%-5%. So what's very important to number one is, as you can see, I mean, we are overperforming most of our peers. So I mean, again, it's a clear demonstration that even in a volatile environment, Coty continues to overperform. So that's really very important. Number two, which I really want to highlight, this is also on a high base from last year. As you remember, last year, I mean, we were growing at 18%, 18%, and Prestige was growing 22%.

So it shows, again, what we shared several times is that last year we had significant growth thanks to Goddess, but we are able really to bring some incremental growth on this high base. So this is very important, again, to have this in mind. So now if we go a little deeper, so we indicated indeed that Q1 and some of our peers also indicated that some retailers indeed anticipated some fragrance gift sets ordering. So indeed, so this is really also driving some acceleration in Prestige. And you see that Prestige is growing 7%. Prestige fragrance grew by 9% in Q1. So there is definitely now moving from Q1 to Q2. There is this phasing impact on fragrance gift sets. So this is also why we are indicating indeed that our sell-in on fragrance in Q2 would be lower versus the sell-out, but definitely on H1, it's neutral.

So this is definitely, but definitely on Prestige, and you saw the last numbers, and the category remains very healthy. We have very strong initiatives. We are going to be full speed in Q2. So now they are really, I mean, fully funded and in acceleration. So that's definitely very healthy, definitely traction on Prestige. Consumer Beauty, definitely we see Q2, same pattern as Q1. All the headwinds that we described seeing some retailers either destocking or being very tight on their inventory and cash management. We see this pattern continuing definitely in Q2. So this is definitely what's driving now our real traction for Q2. And definitely we are seeing what's very important is that we are not overexposed to any major retailer or channel.

So we are seeing low single-digit to mid single-digit in U.S. pharma, low single-digit in U.S. department stores, and low single-digit percentage for both China and Travel Retail APAC in H2. So it will bring really the H2 to the same level of growth as we have in H1.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Anna Lizzul with Bank of America.

Anna Lizzul (VP of Equity Research)

Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for the question. I was wondering if you could talk a bit about the broader vision for Coty at this point. Where are you at now in terms of executing on your six strategic initiatives that you outlined about three years ago, and just how would you rank your progress on each at this point? And then also with the lower expected growth going forward or more normalized growth, are you still expected to be on track here with your deleveraging goals? Thank you.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

And I'm going to start the answer, and maybe Laurent, you can comment on the deleveraging path. Again, the vision is unchanged. It's the vision we have presented to all of you in 2021 for 2021, which was about number one. At that time, it was about stabilizing and growing the Consumer Beauty division, which we are doing. I can tell you that the color cosmetics results we're having behind our key brands, such as CoverGirl and Rimmel, are very, very good. In fact, if you look at what's happening in the U.S. market, CoverGirl, you've seen it on the slide of the presentation, is the only brand among traditional heritage brands that is almost stable on an omnichannel basis versus e.l.f. to name them.

If we zoom in, and this was done by Evercore, I think recently on the data from Numerator, the only two brands that are growing at Amazon and Target are indeed e.l.f. and CoverGirl, and all the others are losing, and some of them are losing quite big. So the contract that I shared with you two years ago, which is to say we are going to fix these brands, we are going to put them back to growth or to stability, is exactly what is happening right now, and you can expect an acceleration because we are not only implementing this playbook in bigger. We mastered the way to do it.

Now we are going to put the means behind it, but also we are plugging in Agile Beauty, which is something new that we've been working on since 18 months now, testing here and there on different brands how to make it happen to allow us to really beef up the level of innovation from this division, specifically behind color cosmetics. Second thing, still on the number one priority, which is around diversifying the division into other categories, and this is happening behind mass fragrances, which are growing double digits in 2024 and in 2025. Expected to grow in 2025, double digit in fiscal 2025, of course. So that's the number one point. The number two point is around Prestige, where we have explained that we will not only accelerate, but diversify our Prestige fragrance business.

We've done it, I have to say, in an outstanding way, putting on the market four blockbusters in the last fiscal year: Goddess, Kylie Cosmetics, Marc Jacobs, Daisy Wild, Hugo Boss Elixir, and many more to come in the coming quarters, I have to say, without revealing anything to our competitors. So this was done, and we started the first steps into niche fragrances, including with the creation of an in-house brand, Infiniment Coty Paris, whose start is very, very good. Number two, adding two other legs to this Prestige division. The first one is color cosmetics, which is, I would say, around 3% to 4% of the net revenues of the company.

This is thanks to, of course, Gucci Makeup, Burberry Makeup, Kylie Cosmetics, but we are also preparing a big launch behind Marc Jacobs Beauty that's going to give us this ability to have a couture slash indie brand positioning inside our portfolio. Number three, skincare, and we are continuing to play on the marathon of skincare, as I like to call it, with three brands that are all progressing in the right direction. Changes happen in the meantime because China, that was supposed to be the growth engine behind the skincare brands, is not anymore the growth engine it used to be. There are changes here and there. We are adapting our strategy to make the company very resilient.

But skincare, the brands we are playing with, the positioning of the brands, the productivity we are seeing behind each and every brand is increasing, and this is exactly what we were looking for. So the strategy around the two divisions is still valid, still delivering results, and that's what we have seen during this quarter in CoverGirl and Rimmel being the two brands that resist the most with a stable market share in their homelands on Consumer Beauty. But also, as Laurent said it, continued growth of our Prestige fragrance business, 9% of growth on top of a 22% of growth last year. This, I have to say, is an outstanding result. Last but not least, it's channels. E-com, I've commented on e-com at the very beginning of the Q&A.

I've commented, of course. I have not commented yet on travel retail, which has been growing very, very fast in the last, I would say, two years. Today, there is a disruption happening mainly in Korea and in China in the Asian travel retail. The two other centers of travel retail are doing very, very well. So all this on top of the geographic diversification. So with the normalization of the growth, are we still on track with the deleveraging path? And I give the answer to Laurent.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, absolutely, so let's be very clear. Our deleveraging agenda is unchanged. I keep repeating. I've repeated many times that number one priority is really deleveraging the company, and we are on track. As you saw, end of Q1, I mean, we are 0.4 turns below previous year. So this is definitely confirming the great progress.

Indeed, even with the tight inventory management that we shared by retailers, which is adding indeed some volatility on cash inflow timing, I mean, we are absolutely on track to exit calendar year 2024 with leverage below three times, and we continue to target leverage close to 2.5 times exiting calendar 2024. Then second, we absolutely confirm moving towards two times leverage ratio end of calendar 2025. Again, we have all the levers, all the actions in place, and I'm insisting this is not counting on any available divestiture. This is really purely organic. It means that now in 12 months, I mean, the company will be with a leverage ratio at two times. Indeed, this is what you saw from the rating agencies. Definitely, I mean, 11 consecutive upgrades from the rating agencies. Indeed, absolutely on track for this delivery.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Oliver Chen with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Oliver Chen (Managing Director of Retail, Luxury and New Platforms)

Hi, Sue and Laurent. Holiday remains key to second half. How are you planning this year versus prior years, and what do you expect for the holiday given a lot of the dynamics you've spoken to? And I know you had a lot of great comments on what's happening in Prestige fragrance earlier, but what are your thoughts on the moderation and the normalization? And as you do anniversary Burberry Goddess, some of your main innovation catalysts there. And finally, and third, the demand planning program sounds very good. Just what's ahead with that and also the opportunity and managing the risk as you implement that program as well? Thank you.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, thank you, Oliver. So definitely, I mean, and we indicated and you saw the numbers. I mean, the Prestige category, I mean, remains very healthy and very dynamic. I mean, really, we are ending the market category and the category growing by 10%. So this is very, very important that we see it is the fragrance category as we have fulfilled. So the fragrance index, that's where this quite so many times is at play. So definitely, what we are seeing is that we are very confident in the holiday season, and we have, again, very strong ammunitions. You saw talking about Burberry, as you saw, you saw Burberry grew by 17% in Q1. So it means that definitely the momentum that we have on Burberry Goddess now is Burberry Goddess Intense, Burberry Hero, Burberry Her.

I mean, really, the full range is really at full speed. We have very strong plans on Chloé, really with strong innovation, which is really of a very, very good start. We accelerate also the innovations that we launched last year in second half, like Daisy Wild, Kylie Cosmetics. So there is really a long list of innovations which are fully supported and definitely with a very good positive momentum from the retailers and the consumers. I want also to mention also Gucci Orchid, also, which is really number one at Sephora and now that we are expanding to full distribution in Q2. So again, very, very important to see that, and we keep growing in penetration, and we are also addressing new markets. I mean, our Growth Engines market are also accelerating on Prestige fragrance.

But as you saw also, we are seeing fragrance also accelerating big time in the Consumer Beauty segment. So this is also definitely a strong acceleration. So that's really today what definitely we are seeing on the category and our sell-out indeed in the Q2. Then second question, which is about the new demand planning program. So absolutely, I mean, this is a program that we started now a while ago, and we are currently in full implementation. So as I indicated, it's really that we are consolidating two planning hubs into one global planning hub, which is based in Barcelona. I can tell you that there are a lot of benefits by doing this. Number one is definitely that we are using technology to improve significantly our forecast systems.

So having this knowledge, the technology, leveraging AI in one hub, means that definitely we have a clear control power on planning, and this will bring significant savings in terms of cost, number one. But also, when we are improving the forecast accuracy, it has immediate effect on what we described several times, which we are calling excess and obsolescence. Excess and obsolescence is really when either you have too much inventory because you build too much inventory on SKUs and in fact, which were over forecast, it's becoming a hurt in terms of cash and demand. So this is going to reduce significantly. But on the other hand, it's also to make sure that when we have great innovation, great start, we're also improving significantly our service level.

By doing this, it's going to optimize our net revenue and also optimize our gross margin and also improve the collaboration with our retailers. There is also this dimension that by doing this, we are also now improving significantly in the relation with retailers. We will keep you posted on the progress, but you will hear from us that definitely this is a beginning, but there will be a lot of knock-on effect, positive effect from this new approach and new way of working.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Andrea Teixeira with JPMorgan.

Shovana Chowdhury (Equity Analyst)

Hi, this is Shovana Chowdhury. I'm from Andrea Teixeira. Thank you for taking our question. We wanted to ask you about, can you please, can you just parse out how much of your 3%-4% LSL growth in the second half is from actual underlying growth expectations versus due to easier comps as compared to the front half? And how much confidence do you have in this updated outlook for second half, given that it really depends on a few factors like retailer inventory levels and fitting the holidays? And we're assuming that fiscal third quarter may have lower sales if consumers hunker down post overspend during the holidays. And of course, consumers have been challenged for some time. Thank you.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, thank you, Andrea. So two points to have in mind on H2 is number one, that in terms of pricing, definitely H1 is benefiting from pricing effect, which is carryover from strong price increase we implemented last year. And this carryover, I mean, is going to fade away in H2. So it accounts for about two points if you want to compare indeed the H2 to the H1. So that's number one. Number two, I want also to remind that last year, especially in Prestige, I mean, we made some big launches in Q3 and Q4. I refer to it with Daisy Wild and also Kylie Cosmetics, which were really a breakthrough approach really to launch great initiatives, not at the holiday season, but in second half. So we have also these higher comps in terms of Prestige.

But now, definitely, when we are taking all these elements, and you're right that also overall having easier comps in H2, I mean, this is giving us really full confidence definitely in the H2 growth algorithm. And we made it really in a realistic, but also I would say prudent manner because at the same time, definitely we are having new initiatives which are going to come in H2. So we have a strong pipeline on innovation. I can, for example, I refer to mass fragrance. Definitely, we have a strong pipeline on innovation and it's going to accelerate big time in the H2. And second, as I referred, indeed, we are seeing in this H1 normalization or retailer inventory adjustment. And definitely, we are considering that H2 is going to be more stable from this angle.

So again, we really build this H2 taking all these assumptions, but we are very confident on this algorithm.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Olivia Tong with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Olivia Tong (Managing Director and Senior Analyst of Consumer)

Great. Thank you. Just two questions around your sales growth outlook, both medium and long term. For the long term, just maybe a bit of clarification to Robert's question earlier, but your target for mid-single digit growth from fiscal 2026 for fiscal 2026 and beyond that you adjusted yesterday, can you talk about what's driving that deceleration versus the six to eight long-term target you provided in the past? And then more closely, if you could provide some detail around the gap between sell-in and sell-out and what's reflected in your expectation for the Q2 slowdown and then the acceleration into the second half, basically why do you expect such a substantial second half snapback for this year? Thank you.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

So maybe I can start with the second half, which is really, and I can say it again, is definitely that again, between the Q1 and Q2, there is definitely an impact that there is anticipation of gift sets fragrance effect. And this was really a request from retailers, and they anticipated gift sets orders end of Q1. So this is definitely what's driving mostly the phasing between Q1 and Q2. So this is definitely the key element. Other elements, I would say, stay more or less the same, either on retailers behaviors, either in the U.S., but also in China travel retail, Asia travel retail, and also what we shared about Australia, where we have really one retailer definitely which is also adjusting its inventory. Now that H2 definitely, as I just explained, we are now on easier comps, adding new initiatives.

Definitely, again, I mean, this is what's really giving full confidence on the H2 plan.

Olivia and on the second part of the question regarding what's driving as you see as an implied deceleration in the growth of the mid-single digit to high single digit versus the 6%-8% higher algorithm, I think the answer is quite simple. This depends on where in the 3%-5% range the beauty market will land. And this is something that we don't know. And of course, any further channel disruption like we see this year, specifically in the Asian region, where for the moment the visibility is quite low. So that's the way I would answer it very, very simply.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Charles Scotti with Kepler.

Charles Scotti (Head of Luxury Goods Equity Research)

Yes. Good afternoon, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three. The first one, could you give us some details about your market shares online versus offline and whether this channel shift could eventually have an impact on your overall growth market shares? Secondly, can you please give us more colors on your growth in China and the Travel Retail Asia in Q1, as you were fairly under-indexed and quite immune to the turmoil so far, but it seems to be no longer the case? And finally, third question, what do you think will be the impact of a potential 10%-20% customs tax on imported products to the U.S., as I guess most of the Prestige products are made in Europe? And is there any plan to move production to your U.S. or Brazilian facilities? Thank you.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, thank you, Charles. So online, offline, I mean, we started indeed explaining that definitely we are accelerating big time online. So we are gaining market share. It's now about 20% of our business, definitely with above 20% in Prestige, low double digit in Consumer Beauty, but definitely strong acceleration. We have definitely a very strong team with really a full playbook and working hand in hand with the commercial team. So now we have really definitely, I mean, this omnichannel approach, which is really at full speed. And e-com is accelerating. We are seeing with e-retailers, where definitely this is where the omnichannel work is really at full speed, but also with the pure players. We are definitely, we have very strong partnership. I mean, we refer to Amazon, definitely Amazon Beauty is accelerating. And as you know, we were really pioneering this partnership.

We have very strong positions, and it is the case in Prestige, but also in Consumer Beauty. So definitely this is, I mean, there is very strong potential for Coty, and we work on this always in this omnichannel approach, okay? So making sure that online and offline, I mean, really speak together and are definitely complementary. So indeed, very, very, very good dynamic that we are going to continue. On your second question, Travel Retail Asia, we shared during the call that indeed this is declining in the Q1, while Travel Retail Europe and America are really at full speed. Travel Retail Asia is really part of this full China ecosystem, which is indeed currently under tension. And China is indeed slightly negative given also the current tension. But as you know, and I need to insist again, China is only 3% of our net revenue.

So I would say despite, I mean, this current turmoil, I mean, we have limited exposure in this current context, and this is also the same for Travel Retail Asia, but we are working on initiatives, as you know, what's accelerating in China is really high-end fragrance, where we have very strong positions, and we have also great initiatives in the future, so I keep repeating, currently indeed there is this tension, but the impact for Coty is limited. Okay, there is an impact, but it's limited, and definitely, we keep seeing some strong potential, so your third question on tariffs, so this is absolutely something that we had anticipated and that we have been working for a while. What's very important, number one, in terms of components, we source very limited components from China. We need to be there. So there is very, very limited exposure.

Now about Europe and U.S., the strength of Coty, and we keep repeating, is really this global footprint. So we have factories in Europe, but we have also factories in the U.S. on Consumer Beauty and also on fragrance. So these are exactly the kind of hedging that we can create in terms of localizing some production, either in terms of finished goods, but also in terms of components where we have the dual sourcing. So definitely, I mean, our footprint is helping. At the same time, indeed, if these tariffs are confirmed and if our players may be more exposed, it may imply some small price increase really to mitigate and really to keep the impression intact.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

To complement what Laurent said, it's very important to say it again and again, we are the least exposed company to China and to Travel Retail Asia. That's very important among the comparable peers. Still today.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Filippo Falorni with Citi. Please go ahead.

Filippo Falorni (Director of Equity Research)

Hi, everyone. On margins, you guys have delivered very strong performance both on growth and EBITDA margins, and you raised the target on cost savings to $120 million, over $120 million. Can you talk a bit about what are the incremental cost saving initiatives that you're finding in the P&L? And you talked about having momentum into fiscal 2026, so maybe you can also give some color on what is going to continue and what's the pipeline on cost savings going forward? Thank you.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, thank you, Filippo. Absolutely. So margin is really a key focus for the company. So I mean, we are delivering about 200 basis points gross margin expansion in Q1. So I really want to highlight this because it shows definitely that all the actions that we are putting in place strongly deliver. So it's really a combination, as I indicated, pricing, where there is really strong carryover on pricing. There is more moderate inflation, indeed. We are improving significantly the level of excess and obsolescence. I was referring to it before with the planning hub implementation. And procurement and supply chain keep working on very strong productivity initiatives. We shared many times, and we continue all the work we are doing on platforming. We are reviewing all the products, all the formula, and indeed creating some formula synergies, which is helping and also is helping our suppliers.

So definitely strong partnership with our suppliers with very strong initiatives, and this is going to continue. So gross margin indeed is definitely the key driver. We are now above 65%, and this is what we had indicated three years ago, where at that time we were below 60%. So definitely we continue. Now, looking ahead, in the current volatile environment, we had a long list of initiatives in our pipeline. So some are already in motion, and we are accelerating. This is exactly what I explained about the planning hub implementation and how we are going to significantly improve our planning and our forecast model, which will bring savings, but also really improve our pipeline and relation with the retailers, which is absolutely key. The second element I can bring to you, and we refer to it when there was a question about e-commerce online and offline channel.

Definitely, we are seeing that now the landscape is really moving to this omnichannel world, and definitely, we are seeing also some retailer centralization. This is definitely a fact, which is blurring also on these offline and online. So we are assessing also the changes to architecture, really how to adapt to this and really to create some synergies and really to gain some efficiency. Also, so expensive all times, our new model of a speed-to-market, the Agile Beauty, is also here to bring some savings and also acceleration. And last element, which I want to insist on, is on technology. I explained in July that we had successful S/4HANA implementation. Now we are leveraging this technology, definitely where we can find very, very strong savings and improving also on the support function, how we can work on this.

You see there are all these initiatives that are in the pipeline that we are accelerating. They are all connected, and it's definitely part of the All-in-to-Win program that we initiated. That's indeed what's giving us confidence to continue to improve our EBITDA margin. Second point, which is now looking ahead for fiscal 2026, indeed, we have also a strong pipeline of growth initiatives. We have fragrance launches across price points, as we explained, and as we explained several times, of course, strong innovations in the Prestige fragrance, but we have also now strong initiatives in the mass fragrance. We are covering the full price spectrum. Mist is definitely a great opportunity for us. Skincare, we are accelerating.

Geographic expansion, definitely with the Growth Engines, which are really accelerating and you saw the numbers, and they grow double digits, so they grow faster than the major market. And last but not least, the Agile Beauty initiatives in cosmetics will really bring some additional initiatives. So again, in a growing market dynamic, we have again a lot of initiatives in the pipeline to go faster.

Operator (participant)

We'll go next to Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Chris Carey (Equity Analyst and Head of Consumer Staples Research)

Hi everyone. So there's been a few questions on the algorithm. So I won't go there on the top line per se, but I think what I'm hearing is basically that previously it was 6%-8%, but now we have to be mindful that the category growth is a key foundation to be able to deliver that outcome. And if that category growth is lower, then that outcome could be lower, which, by the way, I think makes sense. But correct me if you heard anything there which doesn't make sense to you. Said another way, the category will do what it does, and you'll gain share on top of category. But then connected to that is the 9%-11% EBITDA growth. Obviously, this year, you have a pretty substantial step up in back half EBITDA to kind of stay in that range.

But over time, how should we be thinking about how sturdy 9%-11% is? I mean, should that EBITDA growth range also fluctuate somewhat depending on category, or do you view that as really firm because perhaps it's more connected to your leverage target? So thank you for entertaining any of that and responding how you see fit. Thanks.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

Maybe I'll start with the first part around the growth of the company. I think you understood that indeed we are playing in markets, and the level of growth of the beauty market will be a part of how we are going to build our growth ourselves. But we are an offense business, and beauty is one of the most resilient, if not the most resilient businesses. And Coty has been outperforming this market since now four years almost. So it's really a combination of both, how the market will be. And indeed, our medium-term outlook is to see the market between 3% and 5%. But it's also going to be a question of how fast we are going to accelerate with our new Growth Engines, be it regions, categories.

Don't forget the new licenses, Etro, Marni, Marc Jacobs Beauty, a new license to be announced soon, and we are continuing to work on this topic. So all these elements together are going to give us the right number when it comes to the ability to be exactly in the algorithm that we laid three years ago or close to this algorithm, depending on all these elements altogether. And the second part, maybe Laurent, you can complement on the EBITDA part.

Laurent Mercier (CFO)

Yeah, absolutely. Chris. I mean, so first of all, I want to remind that over the last three years, I mean, we have constantly over-delivered these 9%-11% EBITDA growth. Okay, so that's really today we are even ahead of our initial plan. Indeed, as I indicated, leverage ratio, I mean, we will get where definitely we explained a few years ago. Now, definitely looking ahead, it's a number one focus that EBITDA will continue to over-deliver significantly on the top line growth. So this is a no-brainer. And all the savings initiatives that I just explained, in fact, they are going to even accelerate in fiscal 2026. So it will give us definitely the ammunition to fuel all the great initiatives that we have, but also, of course, to keep growing our EBITDA much faster than the net revenue and continue to expand our EBITDA margin.

And this year, in fact, our EBITDA margin is going to grow close to 100 basis points. So we will be close to 19% EBITDA margin. And then starting from this base, yes, we will continue to expand significantly our EBITDA margin. So I want to make it very clear that, I mean, even if we are reaching our two times leverage ratio, we are going to continue all this work to significantly expand our EBITDA margin.

Operator (participant)

This does conclude today's question and answer period. I will now turn the call back over to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks.

Sue Nabi (CEO)

No, no closing remarks. Thank you very much for your questions. Again, and see you next quarter.

Operator (participant)

This does conclude Coty's first quarter fiscal 2025 question and answer conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.