MAM
Clensta appoints Ankit Gaur as the new CGO & Strategy Officer
Mumbai: Home and personal care startup Clensta on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ankit Gaur as their chief growth and strategy officer.
As Clensta gears up to expand its portfolio and offerings, Gaur will be spearheading brand and performance marketing, communication, sales & growth functions for the brand.
With deep expertise in spearheading disruptive innovation, Gaur brings to the table an innate knack for understanding consumer behaviour. In his role, Ankit will be expected to deliver transformational growth in establishing Clensta as the undisputed market leader in home and personal care segment.
An alumnus of the prestigious SP Jain School of Global Management, Gaur comes with an extensive experience of 13 years in the industry, and has worked across different industries and verticals throughout his career. Prior to joining Clensta, Gaur was at the helm of the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business at Livpure. He has also held various senior leadership positions with organisations such as CuroCarte, Ashok Leyland, Wal-Mart India, Big Bazaar India and Wonderchef.
In his previous stint as an entrepreneur, Ankit piloted the launch of his startup, EthnicRoom, an omnichannel ethnic fashion startup, and successfully raised series-A funding for the brand. His expertise as an entrepreneur will be instrumental in strengthening Clensta’s brand positioning across the country.
“We are delighted to have Ankit on board as our chief growth and strategy officer and would like to welcome him to the Clensta family,” said Clensta founder and CEO Puneet Gupta. “Clensta was incorporated in 2016 with a vision to provide affordable and effective cleaning solutions to the world while also ensuring our planet’s commitment by contributing towards reducing pollution and waste. As we complete six years in business and progress towards the next leg of our journey, we are aiming to expand our presence across markets and enhance our product portfolio to include a more comprehensive set of offerings. Ankit, with his extensive experience across different sectors and industry, is a welcome addition to the team and would play a significant role in catapulting the company to newer heights.”
“I am honoured to have been appointed as the chief growth and strategy officer at Clensta,” said Ankit Gaur. “I have been closely following the developments at Clensta and am impressed with what the brand has achieved in such a short span of time. The ecosystem of sustainable consumption and production that Clensta is trying to build is truly commendable and closely mirrors my personal ethos. I am excited about the new role and look forward to establishing Clensta as one of the most sought-after brands in the D2C space.”
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.
