With a C-suite shuffle, thousands of layoffs, an Amazon U-turn and a disappearing outlook, it was a wild ride in 2024 for the Estée Lauder Cos.

Beginning with the C-suite, after months of speculation, the company announced during the summer that longtime CEO Fabrizio Freda would retire, setting off a succession race between then group executive president Stéphane de La Faverie and chief data officer and executive vice president, enterprise marketing Jane Lauder, with the former eventually winning the title. Jane Lauder subsequently departed day-to-day operations to focus on her duties as a board member. Her cousin William Lauder followed suit, departing his role as executive chairman. This marks the first time in company history that a family member won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm. Other changes included Tracey T. Travis stepping down as CFO, replaced by Akhil Shrivastava. The changes continued into 2025 under de La Faverie’s leadership, with Peter Jueptner, Estée Lauder group president, international, leaving, followed by a plethora of moves to its international leadership.

On the brand level, Jane Hertzmark Hudis will take on the new title of executive vice president, chief brand officer, reporting directly to de La Faverie. The company’s 24 brands will now be organized by category clusters reporting to Hudis, with the hope being that this will break down silos and accelerate speed-to-market innovations. Much of the leadership reshuffling involves the elevation of internal executives, many of whom had joined the company in the last few years.

Last June, Frédéric Malle announced plans to leave his eponymous niche fragrance brand, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.

As for the board, Ronald S. Lauder, a son of founder Estée, retired and handed one of his seats to his son-in-law Eric Zinterhofer, who is married to Aerin Lauder.

Most recently, the company expanded the number of layoffs it needs to make from the 3,000 announced in 2024 to as many as 7,000 as part of its Profit Recovery and Growth Plan. It was also reported that Lauder had hired consultancy Evercore to assess its current brand portfolio, with continued speculation that it could look at divestments.

Throughout 2024, weak demand in China and Asia travel retail continued to weigh on Lauder, while cracks started to appear in its home market. As a result, the company pulled its full year 2025 outlook in October due to continued volatility and low visibility in the near term. As of press time, it had not issued a new one.

While analysts believe some impactive factors are out of Lauder’s control, de La Faverie is betting on his Beauty Reimagined strategy to “restore sustainable sales growth and achieve a solid double-digit adjusted operating margin over the next few years,” he said in a release. Key to his vision is expanding into high-growth channels, markets, media and price tiers to participate in key growth opportunities in prestige beauty.

Over the last nine months, for example, key brands like Estée Lauder, Clinique and The Ordinary have launched on Amazon, while in Europe, the company is eager to leverage the strength of its skin care category in the pharmacy channel, for one. Per the company, the move to Amazon appears to have been so far successful.

As for launches, Balmain debuted Les Éternels de Balmain, a collection of eight fragrances, produced under license by the Estée Lauder Cos. Deciem, the incubator and parent company of The Ordinary — which closed its $1.7 billion deal with parent The Estée Lauder Cos. in 2024 — debuted Loopha, a body care brand with two products, hand and body washes. Other key launches included La Mer Rejuvenating Night Cream and the rollout of Tom Ford Beauty’s Runway Lip Color, with the help of its first ever celebrity face, Angelina Jolie.

Also during 2024, Clinique made a philanthropic commitment of $5 million over seven years to establish the Mount Sinai-Clinique Healthy Skin Dermatology Centre with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. It will study skin aging, skin allergies and inflammatory eczematous skin conditions.