Coty
French perfume house. It was established in 1904 by a young Corsican, Franµois-Joseph-Marie Spoturno (1874-1934), using the surname of his mother, Maria Coti, for the name of the company. In the effervescent Paris of the Universal Exposition of 1900, he discovered at the same time both the exceptional acuteness of his nose and the scarcity of vivacity, fantasy, and daring in the fragrances of the time, which were as anonymous as their bottles. The purpose of his life then became the creation of new and brilliant perfumes which were able to express the multifaceted personalities of women as well as the changes underway in their lives. It was a period of preparation for Grasse, the famous perfume-producing town in southern France, and in 1904 the fragrance Rose Jacqueminot was ready. The idea of breaking a bottle of perfume in a shop at the Louvre accelerated an impact which in few months would make a fortune for Coty and his laboratory. But Coty wasn’t just a creator of new combinations of essences that have enriched the history of fragrances, the first to experiment with the aroma of spices. Convinced that to be a success a perfume must cover itself with grace and seduction, he entrusted Baccarat and Lalique with the design of his luxury bottles. Aiming at the most precious novelty, during the 1930s Coty would establish a glassworks, a box factory, and a plant for printing gold labels. And he would entrust his magic shop windows to the talent of young artists for the launch of each of his perfumes, some 20 in 25 years. The earnings were exceptional, but the enormous financial burdens — in 1922 he bailed out Le Figaro –, and the crash of 1929 caused the bankruptcy of firm, which would not survive the death of its creator. The assets were taken over by the American company Pfizer in 1966 and by the Benkinsen group in 1992.
The group celebrates its 100th anniversary and publishes a book entitled Coty: Perfumer and Visionary (Editions Assouline).
The group announces a worldwide licensing agreement with Sarah Jessica Parker for the development of a fragrance line.
The group announces the acquisition, for $800 million, of the fragrance portfolio of Unilever, which controls the perfume licenses of Calvin Klein, Cerruti, Vera Wang, Chloé, and Lagerfeld.