Fundamentals of Responsibility

It is fundamental that we ensure the safety and integrity of our products and provide a safe working environment for our associates.

Ensuring products are made according to the highest safety standards is a fundamental priority for Coty, so that our consumers can use our products with confidence.

Human safety assessments are integral to our product development process, ensuring all products are safe for their intended use. Our qualified safety experts assess all products before marketing, and all products are developed, manufactured and packaged in compliance with human safety guidelines and regulations for the country in which they are sold.

Our Research & Development function is responsible for maintaining internal guidance on ingredient use and formulations. We draw information from government sources, association recommendations, scientific literature and consultants, as well as data from our Cosmetovigilance, Consumer Affairs, and Consumer Insights and Trends processes. To find out more about this, see here.

We are constantly reviewing our policies and processes with the goal of ultimately achieving zero health and safety incidents. In 2020 we continued to implement and adhere to our global Health and Safety Policy. This policy complements our Code of Conduct and Code of Conduct for Business Partners, and applies to our manufacturing and distribution sites. We assess our employee safety progress year on year through a Total Incident Rate* (TIR).

With the emergence of Covid-19, we shifted our office-based associates across corporate, manufacturing and distribution sites to remote-working where possible to ensure their safety. To support associates on sites where they are unable to work from home, we have introduced daily calls to assess any spread of infection on site, monitor quarantine cases and check the implementation of Covid-19 measures. Where short-term site closures are mandated by local regulations, we have defined a Return to Work Check List and Restart Plan to help guide the safe return of associates. This includes conducting risk assessments, and following guidelines for Covid-19 preventative measures.

In 2020, our Total Incident Rate* was lower than in previous years for Coty Corporate, which covers employees in our offices, R&D centers and salons. It was also lower for Coty Global, which covers all sites and employees across the business.

For Coty Supply Chain, covering associates in our manufacturing and distribution sites, we saw an increase in the number of recorded incidents. To address this as quickly and effectively as possible, we created new focus teams to address the most frequently occurring incident: material handling and machine safety. We defined new standards, carried out additional risk assessments and put in place action plans across all sites. This activity has been supported by local campaigns on focus areas, including safe driving, events safety management, change management, machine safety, material handling equipment, and slips, trips and falls.

To see our full TIR information, please see here.

*Defined as (200,000/total no. working hours on a 1 year rolling average)