MAM
Starwood Hotels is Delhi Daredevils’ principal hospitality sponsor
MUMBAI: The IPL fever is enticing international hospitality chains.
Close on the heels of Marriott India Hotels & Resorts’ sponsorship deal with Rajasthan Royals comes the Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ agreement with the Delhi Daredevils.
Starwood will be the principal hospitality sponsors for the team as they tour around the country to play their matches.
GMR Sports COO Amrit Mathur says, “We look forward to a long and fruitful association with Starwood. They are as passionate about cricket as we are.”
With IPL fever at its zenith, hospitality chains feel it’s the right time to associate with it as part of their brand building exercise.
“We are very excited about our partnership with GMR Sports as an associate sponsor for the Delhi Daredevils team. We see this as an opportunity to connect with the Indian audience, engage with them at different levels and leverage this opportunity to drive visibility and generate interest and hype for our brands and in GMR we found the perfect partner,” stated Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels and Resorts
managing director India and regional VP South Asia Dilip Puri.
The visibility for the hospitality brand is promised by the Starwood’s Westin brand logo being carried on the players’ jersey.
“During this IPL season we will be celebrating the spirit of the game across our 31 hotels in India which include Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton and Aloft, with exciting offers,” added Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels and Resorts regional director of sales and marketing South Asia Rajan Bahadur.
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.
