MAM
HUL’s Sudhir Sitapati joins Godrej Consumer Products as MD & CEO
Mumbai: Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) today announced changes to its leadership team, effective 18 October 18 2021. Sudhir Sitapati will join GCPL as managing director and chief executive officer. Nisaba Godrej, currently the chairperson and MD of the company, will continue to serve as executive chairperson. Sitapati’s appointment will enable GCPL to leverage his significant experience in building sustainable and profitable businesses to guide the growth strategy going forward.
During his 22 years at Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Sitapati led teams across categories and functions in India, Europe, South East Asia and Africa to create significant value for the business. He was appointed to the HUL management committee as an executive director in 2016, making him one of its youngest ever members. Under his leadership, HUL built up its foods and refreshments business as one of the largest in India. This included the $5 billion merger and integration of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare with HUL, the largest deal of its kind in the FMCG sector in India.
Sitapati is currently the co-chair of the CII National Committee of Food Processing and is a past co-chair of the FMCG Committee. He has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a BSc in maths with economics honours from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
Nisaba Godrej said, “I am delighted to be welcoming Sudhir to Godrej. His significant experience and passion for building sustainable and profitable brands and businesses aligns very strongly with our purpose at GCPL. Sudhir’s values-based leadership style also makes him a great fit with the Godrej culture. I look forward to his partnership in unlocking the amazing potential of our company and leading its next phase of growth.”
Sitapati added, “I am very inspired by the legacy of the Godrej Group, and GCPL’s purpose of bringing the goodness of health and beauty to consumers across emerging markets. I am excited about working closely with the talented GCPL team to build on the incredible work they are doing and create sustainable, long-term value for our company.”
In his previous roles, Sitapati was instrumental in creating a world-class tea business for HUL in India and leading HUL’s Soaps business in the country. A passionate marketer, he has worked closely on internationally acclaimed purpose-led marketing campaigns for some of HUL’s most iconic brands, including Surf Excel’s ‘Dirt is Good’, Lifebuoy’s ‘Have you washed your hands with Lifebuoy?’ and Brooke Bond’s ‘Taste of Togetherness’.
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.
