MAM
McDowell’s No.1 Soda Yaari Jam Originals & Guru Randhawa welcomes the new year with a foot tapping track “Yaari”
Bengaluru: While the whole world awaits the New Year 2020, McDowell’s No.1 Soda Yaari Jam Originals brings in the Punjabi sensation – Guru Randhawa and popular music producer Vee to wish their fans A Happy New Yaar by releasing the next originals – ‘Yaari’ – that has crossed over 20 million within 24 hours of release. The past year being an extremely successful one for all the originals launched by the brand with renowned artists like Sunidhi Chauhan, Anupam Roy, Tanishk Bagchi, Darshan Raval and Jonita Gandhi. This new track gets the yaars to come together to welcome the new year with a fresh start and a new self!
The original has been written and composed by Guru Randhawa while Vee gave music to it. With this foot tapping track Guru brings alive the emotion of celebrating a new you and with that a new yaar who has overcome the failures, heartbreaks and unfulfilled dreams of the previous year. The music video directed by Gifty has been produced by McDowell’s No. 1 Soda in collaboration with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
McDowell’s No.1 Soda, has always been an enabler of strong bonds of friendship with fascinating stories of yaari that are brought alive through music. Aiming to bring new outlook and a lot of hope this new year, the track encourages the yaars to get together and celebrate new beginnings and wish each other a “Happy New Yaar”!
Talking about the launch of the original, Guru Randhawa said, “I have been fortunate enough to have had the chance to celebrate new beginnings every year with my yaars. They are the ones who ensured that we overcome our shortcomings from the previous year and filled each other’s lives with hope and faith. Such bonds have always helped me achieve greater heights in life. It was a lovely experience to create a new year song and I hope that inspires people to be a better yaar and enjoy the yaari to the fullest.”
“Yaars in my life have played a very important role to make me who I am today. They have always supported me and encouraged me to explore for more improvement than ever before to achieve greater success. I was thrilled when McDowell’s No.1 Soda Yaari Jam presented me this opportunity to produce music dedicated to yaari. I hope this new year with the song that Guru and I have created people strengthen their bonds further”, added music producer Vee.
Amarpreet Singh Anand, VP Marketing and Portfolio Head, Diageo India, said, “Change is the only constant in this world and at McDowell’s No.1 Soda we believe that it is within us to revive ourselves to be a better yaar and nurture yaari. The success of our previous tracks with renowned artists for No.1 Yaari Jam Originals only motivates us to create more such engaging originals. Guru Randhawa is an incredible talent, very popular among the millennials and a perfect choice to voice the message through this new song.”
“Music plays an integral part in our culture and No celebration is complete without it. We are glad to work with McDowell's No.1 Soda and Hungama on this special song. We are certain that Guru Randhawa and Vee's music will connect with the audiences across the world”, said T-series President Neeraj Kalyan.
Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media said, “Our partnership with McDowell’s No. 1 Soda has allowed us to create original content that marries music with a meaningful and relatable messaging to drive consumer engagement. We are glad to have Guru Randhawa and Vee on board for a song that speaks about the importance of friendships and new beginnings. Over the years, we have created a vast repository of unique music-driven original content that has allowed us to offer a differentiated experience to our users. We are certain that this song and music video as well, will certainly strike a chord with everyone.”
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.
