MAM
Kirloskar group appoints Pitchfork Partners for its brand refresh campaign
Mumbai: The Kirloskar group of companies comprising of Kirloskar Oil Engines, Kirloskar Chillers, Kirloskar Pneumatic, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, and Kirloskar Industries, recently undertook a refresh of their respective business visions. The transformation – under the ‘Limitless’ brand refresh – spans eight business areas, laying the foundation for aggressive plans in the B2C domain whilst continuing to power robust growth in the B2B companies.
Pitchfork Partners is appointed to engage with media across platforms to drive home the essence of this refresh campaign. This involves transformation of the businesses from robust engineering-led firms to solution providers that lead today’s industrial landscape to become customer-centric. The outreach also details investing in new business segments and infusion of fresh talent in senior management, which will enable its companies through the use of innovation and technologies to move their business models from products to solutions.
The agency is also overseeing internal communication around this refresh campaign. This involves interactive campaigns around the conglomerate’s values & its transformed business vision of being customer-centric.
Having managed the outreach around the launch of ‘Limitless’, Pitchfork is now executing communication strategies to help the message gain traction across the country and within the conglomerate.
Kirloskar Oil Engines director Gauri Kirloskar said, “Pitchfork Partners’ strengths will play a vital role in driving our communication agenda across our multiple stakeholders. We partnered with Pitchfork for internal and external communications and believe Pitchfork Partners was truly able to deliver the core messages across our various audiences.”
“We have undertaken this journey to become a fully integrated conglomerate. Pitchfork Partners understands our messaging, identity, and values and we are very pleased to be partnering with them,” added Kirloskar Oil Engines executive chairman Atul Kirloskar.
Pitchfork Partners co-founder Jaideep Shergill said, “We are delighted to partner with the Kirloskar companies, which are among India’s most respected businesses. The transformation and repositioning will work wonders for the brand. We are privileged to be part of this change.”
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.
