On October 30th, Est é e Lauder announced on its official website that the board of directors has appointed St é phane de La Faverie as its new president, CEO, and board member, effective January 1st, 2025.
St é phane de La Faverie will succeed Fabrizio Freda, who announced earlier this year that he plans to retire after working for the company for over 16 years. Fabrizio Freda will support de La Faverie in the coming months to ensure a seamless transition. As President and CEO, St é phane de La Faverie will report directly to the company's board of directors.
At the same time, the company also announced that William Lauder, the third generation heir to the wealthy Lauder family in the United States, will resign from his position as executive chairman of the company and continue to hold a seat on the board of directors after the company's upcoming annual shareholders' meeting. Jane Lauder, also the third generation heir, announced on Sunday that she will resign from the company. Two members of the founder's family have resigned, marking the first time in Est é e Lauder's 75 year history that no family members have been involved in daily management.
With over 25 years of beauty experience, St é phane de La Faverie joined the company in 2011 and currently serves as Executive Group President, responsible for managing many brands in the company's strong product portfolio, from multi billion dollar brands such as Est é e Lauder to the expansion and development of brands such as Jo Malone London, the Normal, and Le Labo.
The announcement mentions that St é phane de La Faverie is a creative, dynamic, and focused leader who uncompromisingly focuses on brand excellence and innovation across categories, regions, and channels, as well as the ability to drive profitability through discipline, speed, and efficiency. At the critical moment of this category, he played a particularly important role in strengthening the company's perfume product portfolio, and skillfully responded to industry changes and changing consumer behavior. In addition, St é phane de La Faverie played a key role in leading the implementation of the company's profit recovery and growth plan to help restore stronger and more sustainable profitability.
Regarding this appointment, Charlene Barshefsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Est é e Lauder Group, stated that St é phane de La Faverie is the ideal transformational leader needed to drive the company's response to current challenges and enter the next chapter of growth.
In 2023, in order to offset the impact of the beauty business in China on Est é e Lauder's performance in the 2025 fiscal year, Est é e Lauder Group began implementing the Profit Recovery and Growth Plan (PRGP), aimed at restoring sustainable, long-term organic sales growth and rebuilding the foundation of operational profitability. At that time, Jane Lauder was entrusted with a heavy responsibility and appointed as the "Joint Executive Leader" of PRGP along with St é phane de La Faverie.
This measure has also been widely interpreted by the outside world as the ultimate test for two internal candidates, Jane Lauder and St é phane de La Faverie.
However, some industry insiders believe that St é phane de La Faverie's localized operational experience and market insight in the Chinese market are one of the reasons why it is favored by the group. If he becomes CEO, it may bring certain strategic layout advantages to Est é e Lauder's recovery in the Chinese market.
Although Jane Lauder has rich experience in digital marketing and gender equality, she lacks direct management experience in the Chinese market. In public reports, she has almost never set foot in China, which is obviously a disadvantage that cannot be ignored for Est é e Lauder Group at present.
In September 2022, Est é e Lauder Group will divide its brand portfolio into two major brand clusters, led by Group Executive President Jane Hertzmark Hudis and St é phane de La Faverie, who has been promoted to Group Executive President, reporting directly to Fu Yide.
Among them, the brand cluster led by St é phane de La Faverie includes Estee Lauder Estee Lauder, AERIN Beauty, Jo Malone London Zu Malone, Le Labo, KILIAN PARIS Kelian, Editions de Parfums FREDERIC MALLE perfume Publishing House, DARPHIN Dufan, LAB SERIES Langes and Deciem.
At that time, China's "olfactory market" was still in its infancy, but in the eyes of St é phane de La Faverie, China had great market potential. In the past year, he visited Shanghai four times and was greatly inspired by the thriving business environment. Based on this, many perfume brands of Estee Lauder Group have been making continuous efforts in China.
For example, in order to link Chinese consumers, Le Labo not only opened an independent store in Shanghai to redefine experiential shopping, but also launched the exclusive perfume "Myrrh55" in Shanghai.
The effect is immediate. In fiscal year 2024, Estee Lauder Group made a sound of "falling": the sales of skin care category dropped by 3%, the cosmetics category dropped by 1%, and the hair care category dropped by 4%. Only the perfume category remained strong, and the sales increased by 2% year on year. This is mainly driven by the mid single digit growth of high-end perfume brands. For example, Le Labo's net sales recorded a strong double-digit growth, nearly doubling in the Asia Pacific region.
It can be seen that perfume business has become the growth engine of Estee Lauder Group. Behind this lies the contribution of St é phane de La Faverie.
In an internal memo announcing her resignation, Jane Lauder stated that the company is undergoing necessary and fundamental changes, and I have considered how to most effectively help the company regain its rightful position as a global leader in high-end beauty.
It is reported that Jane Lauder will serve as the CEO's profit recovery and growth plan advisor until the end of Est é e Lauder's fiscal year 2025 (ending at the end of June 2025). This change will enable me to have the greatest impact on the future of Est é e Lauder Group, "he admitted." In this position, I plan to focus on the company's strategic priorities, growth profile, and necessary transformation changes.
(Chen Zexuan, Time Financial Journalist, Comprehensive Self Interface News, Caijing Network, New Beijing News)