Coty Is Returning the Gucci Beauty License to Kering a Year Ahead of Schedule
Coty has agreed to end its Gucci Beauty license a year before the 2028 expiry, sending the brand back to Kering as part of L'Oreal's acquisition of the Kering beauty portfolio. When Kering announced the sale of its beauty holdings to L'Oreal in October 2025, Gucci was missing because the license sat with Coty. The early exit clears the path for L'Oreal to consolidate Gucci Beauty into its own portfolio. Financial terms of the early termination were not disclosed. Bobbi Brown's son also stepped down as CEO of Jones Road this week, according to Glossy.
THE BREAKDOWN
The Coty-Kering-L'Oreal handoff is a reminder that beauty licensing structures can be unwound when consolidation pressure is high enough, even before expiry. Talent and creator brand partnerships that involve licensing agreements should always include exit clauses with realistic termination timelines, not just term-end assumptions. If a creator has a licensed beauty product under a legacy conglomerate deal, the counter-party landscape can shift when M&A is in play. Brand managers working on creator-facing product licenses should audit the full licensing chain on any co-brand deal they are signing now, since today's licensee may not be the company managing the brand in two years.
Get the full briefing weekly
Read by talent managers, agents, and brand partnership professionals every Friday.