The plan is for Younique to continue on as its own business, only now as a part of Coty’s Consumer Beauty Division. Co-founders Melanie Huscroft and Derek Maxfield will remain in their current roles, chief visionary officer and CEO, respectively.
“We are thrilled to have Coty as a partner and expect that together we will be able to take Younique to new heights,” Maxfield says in a press release about the deal. “Coty and Younique share a passion for beauty, an entrepreneurial spirit, as well as complementary missions. I am very excited about this partnership and everything it can bring to Younique’s employees, presenters and loyal consumers across the world.”
Global social selling
The Younique platform is essentially a direct-sales, multilevel marketing beauty product company that operates online and through social media. The company’s 200,000+ independent representatives are known as presenters. They sell through personalized websites, demoing the products in video tutorials, social posts, etc.
“Younique’s highly scalable technology platform is built for mobile-first e-commerce and seamless global expansion,” according to the Coty press release. And the company has “over 4.1 million consumers in 10 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico, France, Spain and Hong Kong.”
Business dealing
Coty is set to pay approximately $600m cash for a 60% share of the Younique business—a business that’s projected in bring in $400m in net revenue for 2016. The remaining 40% of the social selling company will be owned by the founders. This deal will likely close (pending customary conditions) in Q3 of Coty’s fiscal year.
Younique adds a refined ecommerce platform and social, direct sales capabilities to Coty, while Coty will lend its R&D, manufacturing, and supply chain capabilities to the Younique brand. Coty CEO Camillo Pane calls founders Huscroft and Maxfield “tremendous entrepreneurs who have built one of the most engaging and fastest growing e-commerce companies in beauty.”
“Alongside the rest of Younique’s team and in partnership with their presenters, they have been able to impact the lives of millions of consumers across a number of countries with a mission to uplift and empower women. We look forward to working with them to continue supporting this mission and building Younique into a leading global e-commerce beauty company,” says Pane in the press release.