MAM
Treebo appoints Nishant Gupta as head of brand & marketing
MUMBAI: Treebo Hotels, a budget hotel chain, has appointed Nishant Gupta as the head of brand and marketing. It has an inventory of 10,000 rooms and 400 hotels in over 85 cities.
Gupta is a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in brand and category building. At Treebo, he will spearhead the strategic initiatives to establish the startup as India’s most loved travel brand.
Prior to joining Treebo, Gupta worked at Marico as the group product head for the male grooming category. In this role, he was responsible for managing the P&L of the product portfolio for this category by developing compelling brand campaigns as well developing a strong innovation pipeline. His brand building efforts helped achieve remarkable success for the company for brands like Parachute, Set Wet, and Nihar, many of which saw double digit growth year on year.
Treebo Hotels co-founder Sidharth Gupta says, “Nishant’s expertise in building similar industry-leading consumer brands will help us in this mission. We are excited to onboard him into the leadership team. There are several brand related initiatives in the pipeline which he will be now leading for us. He will also shape the upcoming legs of the marketing campaign that we launched last year.”
Gupta adds, “Treebo has crafted a unique identity in the budget hotel space in a very short span of time. The brand has an unmatched appeal and respect in the market. I am really excited about this opportunity and to be a part of a rewarding journey to build Treebo as the most loved hospitality brand in the country. While this category is cluttered and highly competitive, I believe that our brand building initiatives will keep us ahead in the game and top of mind for customers.”
Founded in 2015, Treebo Hotels offers high-quality travel experience to its customers by providing comfortable and value-for-money accommodation options.
Treebo works on a franchise model with carefully selected, existing, standalone hotels. Treebo aims at enriching lives of every traveller by delivering a delightful experience.
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.
