MAM
SOCIAL unveils the S(#stree)CIAL campaign for International Women’s Day
March 2020: SOCIAL has always believed in paving new paths with the spaces it creates. This International Women’s Day, the brand is kickstarting some trailblazing activities – both inside and outside SOCIAL – to empower and enable its community of women.
Led by culture and inspired by our community, S(#stree)CIAL is not a one-off token day of celebration. Rather, it is an always-on conversation that is deeply embedded in the DNA of the brand. Divya Aggarwal, Head – Marketing, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, says, “SOCIAL is known for creating spaces that epitomize its core values of community and creativity. This International Women’s Day, we are doing just that by initiating conversations around the pillars of Safety, Inclusivity, and Opportunity. These pillars are the driving forces behind our pledge to move forward with the community and leaving no one behind.”
On the back of substantial experience in curating forward-thinking events across the country, the all-day café and high energy bar is hosting three exciting #charcha panel discussions around the topics of Safety, Inclusivity, and Opportunity at select outposts in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore on March 8, 2020. Adding to the conversation will be talk-worthy Live Art demos with three female artists. What’s more, SOCIAL is also collaborating with like-minded brands like MTV, LXME (India’s first financial planning platform for women), and Ladies, Wine and Design, to give its community a free and safe space to convene, collaborate, and communicate.
Special events include a fun session called Girls Just Want To Have Funds in collaboration with LXME, at antiSOCIAL Mumbai. FC Road SOCIAL in Pune will see Art Baithak in association with Palat Studios and Ladies, Wine and Design, where you can come by and discuss art with like minds and even buy handpicked art pieces created by women.
Says Riyaaz Amlani, MD & CEO, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, “We have also internalised the core pillars of Safety, Inclusivity, and Opportunity at a company-wide level. Since January 2020, we have been working actively to make our spaces safer, more inclusive, and employment friendly for women. I hope this gives impetus to other brands in the Indian F&B industry to follow suit.”
To make its customers’ day and nights safer at SOCIAL, the company has proactively employed women bouncers – aka Safety Warriors – who are always on hand to help, should you need it. SOCIAL also has a zero-tolerance policy towards incidents that make women uncomfortable in its spaces. Having shots at 12 AM? Going for a late-night gig? They’ll be there. If you need a cab back home after a late night of partying, the staff will help you book one and also make call backs to check if you’ve reached home safely. The goal is to ensure that your SOCIAL outing is fun, and more importantly, safe.
The company has also signed a year-long partnership with the not-for-profit organisation One Future Collective, to create company-wide policy changes and new trainings on sexual harassment in the workplace, gender sensitisation, as well as gender diversity and inclusion with empathy and heart at its core. Impresario is committed to the cause of inclusivity and diversity by also recently hiring a Diversity Officer to lead the initiative.
At your nearest Impresario restaurant, you will now find a lot more women working across all levels, with a new internal policy that mandates that a minimum of 20% of the workforce is to comprise women. By proactively employing more female staff across its culinary, managerial and guest relations teams, the company will provide more opportunities for employment and engagement.
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.
