Beauty / news
Estée Lauder CEO Stéphane de La Faverie Returns Beauty Giant to Growth
Stéphane de La Faverie has completed his first fiscal year as president and chief executive of the Estée Lauder Cos., a period that ended three consecutive years of organic sales losses and delivered gains in both net sales and profitability.
The results mark a turnaround for the prestige beauty group, which had posted three straight years of organic sales declines. De La Faverie, who became CEO on Jan. 1, 2025, said the company is "growing again," a shift that Wall Street and industry analysts have watched closely since the decline began in 2022.
The scale of the drop is reflected in the company's share price. Estée Lauder stock hit an all-time high of $371.86 in early January 2022. By the time de La Faverie took the top job, the shares were trading at $73.98, and the group had ceded its position as the world's largest prestige beauty manufacturer to rival L'Oréal.
De La Faverie said his agenda goes beyond restoring growth and profitability, encompassing a broader effort to reshape the company's culture and prepare it for the future.
The fiscal year results, shared as he closed out what he described as one of the most significant weeks of his career, pointed to increases in both net sales and profitability for the New York-based beauty group.