Brands
Dabur likely to name Herjit Bhalla as CEO
MUMBAI: Dabur India could be on the verge of a corner office reshuffle. According to media reports, the company is likely to appoint Herjit S Bhalla as its next chief executive officer, marking a significant leadership transition at one of India’s oldest consumer goods firms.
If the appointment is confirmed, Bhalla is expected to report to current CEO Mohit Malhotra, who might be slated to move into a more senior and elevated role within the organisation. The change would underline continuity at the top, rather than a sharp change in direction.
Bhalla is a familiar name in global FMCG circles. He is currently with The Hershey Company, where he has spent more than eight years in senior leadership roles across India, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and, most recently, Canada. Based in Dubai, he now serves as vice president for Canada and Global Customers, following earlier stints overseeing India and the wider AEMEA region.
Before joining Hershey, Bhalla was chief operating officer for North and East India at Metro Cash and Carry, leading growth and expansion in some of the country’s most competitive wholesale markets. His deepest roots, however, lie at Hindustan Unilever, where he spent over 16 years across sales, marketing and general management roles in India and overseas.
At HUL, Bhalla led large teams, managed multi brand portfolios and played a key role in high impact growth initiatives such as Winning in Many Indias. His international experience includes running Unilever’s foods business across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where he handled a complex turnaround in a fiercely competitive market.
For Dabur, the reported move suggests a preference for a steady hand with both global exposure and strong India credentials. Bhalla’s career has been built on scaling brands, sharpening distribution and delivering consistent growth, all familiar terrain for a company whose fortunes are closely tied to everyday consumption.
Malhotra’s expected move into a broader role would also mark an evolution rather than a departure. Under his leadership, Dabur has navigated volatile input costs and shifting consumer demand, while reinforcing its core health and wellness positioning.
While Dabur has not made an official announcement, the reports have already set the rumour mill buzzing. If they hold true, the baton at Dabur may soon pass to a seasoned insider to the FMCG playbook, keeping the company firmly on a steady, familiar path.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
