MAM
Eureka Forbes appoints Digitas as digital AoR
MUMBAI: Eureka Forbes Limited has awarded its digital strategies and social media mandate to Digitas India of the Publicis Groupe.
Digitas will be responsible for an integrated and end-to-end solution to strengthen engagement with customers across digital platforms like electronic customer relationship marketing (e-CRM), e-commerce, online relationship management (ORM) and social media. E-commerce will play an important role in the company‘s digital strategy as Eureka Forbes is strengthening its presence not only in direct sales but also retail and B2B space as well.
Eureka Forbes CEO direct sales and senior vice president, marketing Marzin R Shroff said, “We are happy to partner with Digitas as our digital agency. The core strength of Eureka Forbes is ‘relationships‘ with our customers. In this digital age, it is important for us to engage with our customers real-time on the digital platforms as well and cater to their needs. For over 30 years, India has known us for our direct marketing efforts; the vision is to replicate the same on the digital space as well. We believe the integrated approach and rich experience of Digitas will help us to strengthen our customer relationships on a long term basis and wish to build a strong e-commerce channel to supplement our success of direct selling in India.”
Digitas India president Kanika Mathur said, “This is an amazing opportunity and we are incredibly excited to be a part of the digital initiative for Eureka Forbes – the world‘s No. 1 direct sales company. More and more of Eureka Forbes customers will be online as the internet explodes in India and we believe that a significant business model can be created online.”
Eureka Forbes is a water purification company with marquee brands like Aquaguard and Euroclean for nearly 30 years. It has a strong legacy of building relationships with customers providing safest and technologically advanced health and hygiene solutions.
The company today has emerged as a multi-product, multi-channel organisation with a strong pedigree of brands encompassing water purifiers, vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, home security and automation solutions, fire extinguishers and a large range of institutional products on the cleaning and the purification 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.
