Brands
Leo Burnett Orchard makes key senior appointments
MUMBAI: Leo Burnett Orchard, the Leo Group India’s full service creative agency, has made some key senior management changes.
The agency has brought on board Manav Rai Ahuja as vice president and branch head of Mumbai. The branch’s former vice president and head Sharmine Panthaky, has moved to the Bengaluru branch in the same capacity. Panthaky now heads the branch overseeing the Amazon India business, Leo Burnett Orchard’s largest client.
The duo will report to Leo Burnett Orchard COO Mahuya Chaturvedi. Ahuja will work closely with executive creative director Amod Dani. He comes from Leo Burnett India’s Gurugram office where he was the vice president. He joined the agency in 2009 to launch Telenor in India. His advertising experience spans 14 years, of which he has spent the last eight with Leo Burnett India. He has also had stints with Lowe, McCann Worldgroup and Ogilvy & Mather in the past. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the country namely Coca Cola India, Maruti Suzuki, General Motors, SBI Card, Uninor, Snapdeal, Perfetti, LG, Motorola and Yahoo! He has also worked in the high-end luxury retail sector during his year long stint with Lladro and Villeroy & Boch.
Chaturvedi says, “Manav comes in with the rich experience of working on some of the biggest brands across categories. He will take the momentum of the Mumbai branch forward, keeping its winning streak going. His mandate is to grow the great body of work that the branch has done in 2017, by manifold. I expect 2018 to be an exceptional year for Leo Burnett Orchard Mumbai with Manav and Amod working together to create some fantastic work for our clients.”
Excited to be joining his new role, Ahuja mentions, “Leo Burnett Orchard has great momentum right now. We have an exciting set of brands and the right mix of people to create some great work in the coming months. My personal focus would be to delight my current and prospective clients by offering them integrated solutions to their brand problems. I look forward to my new role with all its exciting challenges.”
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.
