MAM
playR continues to be the official merchandising partner of Rajasthan Royals
Mumbai: playR, one of the leading sports and lifestyle brands, announced that they have associated with Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural champions of the T20 Tournament, as the team’s official merchandising partner, the journey that started in 2023 continues for 2024 season.
This partnership will enable Rajasthan Royals to create a vast range of fan merchandise for their fans worldwide. The merchandise range will include apparel, accessories and lifestyle products for fans to show their loyalty to the team.
The objective of this partnership is to provide the Royals’ fans across the globe the opportunity to proudly don their team’s threads and sport various exclusive merchandise.
Rajasthan Royals chief business officer Alok Chitre said, “As a franchise which is fan-focused, we are always looking to provide our fans with the best quality merchandise so they can showcase their support for the teams. Through our extension of the association with PlayR, we are looking forward to the fans sporting the specially curated range of merchandise that captures the essence of the team.”
playR co-founder and director Ravi Kukreja expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, saying, “We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Rajasthan Royals for the 2024 season. This partnership will allow us to create a unique range of merchandise for Rajasthan Royals fans around the world. We look forward to working with the team and helping them to create a strong fan base.”
playR is a sport and lifestyle brand founded in 2021 and strives to provide customers with unique and edgy apparel, sports equipment, bicycles and accessories that celebrate their style and encourage them to express themselves. Currently present in over 100 retail stores in India and International and e-commerce, playR strives to cross 800 plus stores over a period of two years. playR provides a wide range of products that includes t-shirts, jackets, shorts, tracksuits, bats, balls, leg-guard, gloves, bicycles, bags, yoga mats, bottles, etc, as well as limited-edition items. playR’s mission is to inspire customers to be creative, confident, and fearless by providing them with a unique and fashionable style.
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.
