MAM
Happy expands services with Design Cell
MUMBAI: Bengaluru-based creative agency Happy has launched a new division — Design Cell — as part of its expansion plans. The new division will be led by Shilpa Colluru in Bengaluru and Pallavi Nayak in Mumbai. The company had started Mumbai operations in January this year.
Design Cell will offer services in the areas of identity creation, branding and packaging, along with retail and environment design. While business development will be driven from Bengaluru and Mumbai offices the division aims to service clients across India. The creative delivery, however, will continue to take place from Bengaluru.
Happy CEO Kartik Iyer said, “We have been offering design services to many from the day we started. We‘ve also been fortunate to win a few awards for our work in Design. We took our time to build a body of work and crystallise on a strategic design process that is our own. The design cell shall work as an independent unit with its own business targets and talent pool. We see a huge opportunity in this space and are confident we can inject new energy and excitement in this space.”
Happy COO Praveen Das added, “Having a specialised design cell only seemed like a natural progression for us as it allows us to do a lot more for our clients. It also makes more sense for companies and brands that have been newly formed and are preparing for a launch.”
According to Iyer Design is more than just making things look pretty. “There is science behind effective design. India is at a stage where her people have begun to develop a strong aesthetic sense and appreciation for design. We believe that this will play a strong ancillary role in shaping the way Indian businesses look at branding and design as a key to drive growth,” Iyer said.
In the past, Happy has designed for projects like The Lee Never wasted Bag and The Skinny jeans packaging for Lee. The agency was also responsible for online fashion retailer Myntra.com‘s new logo. Happy also created the logo and worked on the store experience of fashion retailer Basics Life.
Apart from Design, Happy‘s creative wing is behind the popular Flipkat.com advertisements featuring small children as grown-ups.
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.
