Coty forms global team for Rimmel expansion

Cosmetics and fragrance group Coty has created a new global team in London to co-ordinate the worldwide expansion of its colour cosmetics brand, Rimmel.

Rimmel has promoted Anastasia Ayala, senior vice-president for marketing, to run the new division as senior vice-president for Rimmel Global and Cutex Europe.

The establishment of the new team is in line with Coty chairman and chief executive Peter Harf’s strategy of building mega-brands through global expansion. Coty created a global mass market fragrance team in London earlier this year (MW May 27).

Previously at Procter & Gamble, Revlon and Estée Lauder, Ayala spent four years at Coty, the last three of which have been dedicated to Rimmel, which she helped to relaunch across Western Europe in 1998.

In her new role, Ayala will be responsible for Rimmel advertising, marketing and product development. She will develop an international strategy to ensure Rimmel’s brand and products develop uniformly across the 80 markets where Coty operates, and work with J Walter Thompson, London. The ad agency won the $40m (£25m) global account in February.

Jean-André Rougeot, president of Coty Group, says: “Ayala is ideally suited to managing the Rimmel global team and to imple- menting a framework that enables different countries to function in tandem.”

With headquarters in New York, Coty also owns Sensiq make-up, Adidas and Healing Garden fragrance lines. The company is privately owned by Dutch holding company Reckitt Benckiser.

Coty is keen to expand its colour cosmetics ranges and has been linked with the ailing Revlon. In 1996 it lost a bidding war against L’Oréal for Maybelline.