Unilever appoints Jean-Philippe Courtois as new R&D Director for prestige division
Courtois served as Prestige R&D Strategy & Operations Lead at Unilever before this promotion.
UK – Unilever, a British multinational consumer goods company, has announced the appointment of Jean-Philippe Courtois as the new Research & Development Director for its prestige division.
Courtois is expected to drive innovation across the division’s luxury beauty brands and collaborate with brand teams and partners to develop products that align with the division’s focus on premium beauty and sustainability.
He began his career at Unilever in 2000 and most recently served as Prestige R&D Strategy & Operations Lead before this promotion.
Commenting on his role, Courtois stated, “I am very pleased to share that I am starting a new position as Unilever Prestige R&D Director and look forward to more innovations with all our talented brand teams and partners.”
The Prestige Division, which includes luxury beauty brands such as Murad, Kate Somerville, REN Clean Skincare, Tatcha, Living Proof, and Hourglass, was founded in 2014 by Vasiliki Petrou.
Vasiliki Petrou established this division in 2014, but he stepped down after a decade as its CEO.
Under her leadership, the division saw significant expansion, with strategic acquisitions including Dermalogica, Paula’s Choice, and K18 contributing to a turnover of €1.4 billion (USD 1.59 billion) in 2023.
Recently, Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson took over as CEO of the Prestige Division in October 2024.
In 2024, Unilever’s prestige beauty and wellbeing portfolio accounted for approximately 30% of turnover within its Beauty and Wellbeing business segment.
However, according to the company’s recent financial report, Prestige Beauty posted mid-single-digit growth, reflecting a broader slowdown in the US beauty market.
FY24 results
Unilever reported strong financial results for the full year 2024, achieving 4.2% sales growth, led by 2.9% price growth and 1.3% profit growth.
Unilever achieved volume growth above 2%, with every Business Group contributing to positive annual volume growth for four consecutive quarters.
Beauty & Wellbeing delivered a strong full-year performance, with underlying sales up 6.5%, driven by volume at 5.1% and price at 1.3%.
Personal Care grew 5.2% with 3.1% volume growth, led by strong, innovation-led sales growth of Deodorants.
Home Care’s underlying sales increased by 2.9%, with 4.0% volume growth and 1.1% from price, linked to commodity cost deflation.
For the fiscal year 2025, Unilever forecast underlying sales growth between 3% to 5%.
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