Sales: $2.0 billion

Comments: Wella Company says it is one of the fastest growing companies in the $100 billion hair and nail segment. Since its founding in December 2020, Wella says it has delivered continuous double-digit profit and growth ahead of expectations and is one of the fastest-growing beauty companies in the sector.

Wella’s portfolio spans professional and retail with several brands—Wella Professionals, OPI, GHD, Briogeo, Nioxin, Sebastian Professional and Clairol.

“Our first two years of business have shown the enduring potential of the Wella Company portfolio – we are re-establishing category excellence in both hair and nails, and both professionals and consumers are falling in love again with our beautiful brands,” said CEO Annie Young-Scrivner. “Our continued strong financial performance, coupled with growth and gain in market share across all categories, even in the challenging global context, is proof that our business is just beginning to tap into its full potential.”

Last year, Wella launched Shinefinity, a professional glazing service. A new category for the brand, it was the company’s strongest color launch ever, delivering 4% above target, according to Wella’s calculations.

Other brands are also doing well. Sebastian and Nioxin generated double-digit growth. OPI is the No. 1 professional nail brand worldwide and No. 3 in US retail.  Briogeo, which became part of the Wella portfolio in 2022, is moving into the professional market. Wella signed a deal with SalonCentric that will bring the fast-growing hair care brand into 600 doors.

In FY22, the WellaStore B2B e-commerce platform saw sales volume rise 30%. In consumer e-commerce channels, the company said it grew nearly 2.5x faster than the overall hair market, especially in EMEA and APAC.

Sales: $2.0 billion

Following the acquisition by Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, Wella exceeded growth targets last year.

“Our overall business is very healthy, and our financial performance is over-delivering against our annual targets across every business and every geography,” said Annie Young-Scrivner, CEO of Wella Company. “We are poised for growth across the globe. We remain focused on delighting customers and consumers with differentiated product innovations, and we will continue to expand across channels and geographies as we unlock the potential of our brands.”

The two biggest brands in the company’s retail hair portfolio, Clairol and Wella, benefitted from reinvestment and brand overhaul. OPI sales grew more than 10% thanks, in part, to the launch of Nature Strong, billed as the first natural-origin vegan nail lacquer. In fact, Nature Strong was the top-selling Spring 2022 launch in the US mass color cosmetics market. Nioxin grew net revenue double-digits as consumers continued to focus on in-home hair care and hair loss due to the pandemic.

The company proudly notes that last year, nearly 70% of new hires were women and 60% of promotions were earned by women.

“We are an industry built on the backbone of women—salon colorists, stylists, nail technicians. In fact, nearly 90% of the professional salon industry in the US and UK are comprised of women—but a negligible number are owners of the businesses,” noted Young-Scrivner. “We want to support the success of the industry overall and believe that means doing our part to support women in this industry.”

In June, Wella joined the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative.

Sales: $2.0 billion

Last year Coty sold 60% of Wella to KKR for $2.5 billion. Before the deal was completed, KKR named Annie Young-Scrivner as the new CEO. She joined Wella from Godiva Chocolatier where she served as CEO for the last three years. Prior to that post, Young-Scrivner spent seven years in a number of senior positions at Starbucks Corporation where she helped elevate the brand and customer experience while fueling an innovation pipeline that led to double-digit growth. She started her career at PepsiCo Inc. where she held senior leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management during her 19-year tenure with the business.

In an interview with Thrive Global to commemorate International Women’s Day, Young-Scrivner said  authentic beauty is the reflection of one’s gifts, passions, pains and life experiences in daily manifest. It is who you are.

“Nothing is more beautiful than a woman who is confident and at peace with her sense of self,” she added.

In March, Wella conducted a a meta-analysis of existing research, fielded a beauty professional survey to 600 beauty professionals and collected stories from women in the industry for its “An Inside Look at Gender Equity in Professional Beauty.”

“While women dominate the professional beauty service industry in sheer numbers, they are still working towards equal pay and securing positions of decision-making. Moreover, due to the pandemic, women are losing their jobs or dropping out of the workforce in growing numbers due to caregiving responsibilities and pay inequality,” wrote Young-Scrivner.

The company noted that of the top seven global professional beauty companies (L’Oréal, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Pravana, Estée Lauder Companies, Coty, Henkel and Wella), males hold five of the CEO roles. The ratio changed for the better in June when Michaeline DeJoria was named CEO of JPMS.