Brands
Weekend Unwind with: Luxury Ride’s Himanshu Arya
Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, it is time to unwind with the latest Q&A edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind—a series of informal chats that peek into the minds of business executives through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better.
In this week’s session, we have Luxury Ride co-founder and CEO Himanshu Arya.
Having completed MBA from IMT Ghaziabad, Arya comes with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Himanshu has come a long way in his career where he started from working with Kotak and Citibank in the initial days to forming Grapes as a leading integrated marketing agency.
He is well adept at helming the team at the technology, digital, strategy & planning, and finance front owing to his rich and diverse experience in the industry.
With Luxury Ride, Himanshu aims to reimagine the pre-owned luxury car industry in India. Delving on his ability to inspire the team, he works relentlessly to make Luxury Ride a one-stop solution for all automotive needs by amending the value chain of the company.
So, without further ado, here it goes…
1. Your mantra for Life
Work hard, party harder
2. A book you are currently reading
The Psychology of Money
3. Your fitness mantra?
Gymming every day without fail
4. Your comfort food?
Wok Tossed Vegetables in Black Bean Sauce and Rajma Rice
5. When the chips are down a quote/ philosophy that keeps you going?
Mistakes are the biggest learnings. Taking this approach has helped me a lot in sailing through the most difficult phases of life.
6. Your guilty pleasure?
Not guilty of anything
7. A life lesson you learnt the hard way?
You can’t keep everyone happy
8. What gets you excited about life?
A new role. Donning the new role is quite refreshing and drives the purpose of my life to always explore and learn new things.
9. What’s on top of your bucket list?
Travel to Las Vegas
10. If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Don’t compromise on your fitness for work
11. One thing you would most like to change about the world?
Change yourself and adapt to the world
12. An activity that keeps you motivated/ charged during tough times?
I love tough times. Over the years, I have realized that challenges provide the ideal opportunity to bring out the best in a person.
13. What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
Everything is temporary; it will go eventually. Just hang in there for a while and the silver lining is bound to come.
14. Your go-to stress buster?
Going on long drives
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.
