Estée Lauder tapped René Lammers as the executive vice president and Chief Research & Innovation Officer, the latest executive shakeup as the company attempts a broader comeback.
The turnaround strategy also encompasses layoffs and growing the company’s travel retail business, which has declined 28% in fiscal year 2025. In Lammers’ new role, he will spearhead product innovation and development at the company, after formerly serving as the chief science officer at PepsiCo, whose shares have plunged over 17% in the past year.
Estee Lauder’s shares have also fallen 13% in the past year, as they have struggled with declining sales from younger consumers. The company has also been overly reliant on their travel retail and department store channels, said Sky Canaves, an analyst at EMarketer, rather than cultivating as strong a presence as their competitors at beauty specialty stores like Sephora and Ulta.
But there are signs that the turnaround strategies are beginning to work, according to Dan Su, an analyst at Morningstar. She said that beauty is a “structurally attractive space” and that Estée has certain advantages like holding top-selling brands across the beauty category, including Clinique, Jo Malone, and La Mer.
The strategies, part of a campaign called Beauty Reimagined, “make a lot of sense in that it emphasizes product innovation and digital engagement,” she said. “The company has room to improve, but the new management clearly sees that need and articulates their strategies.”
The company plans to accelerate innovation specifically in the European market, due to consumer demand and weak performance in France, according to their most recent earnings call.
Lammers, who will officially begin his role on Oct. 1, will specifically lead the “Create Transformative Innovation” portion of the turnaround strategy, which aims to help the company deliver breakthrough products and “on-trend innovation more quickly across prestige price tiers,” according to La Faverie.
“With this appointment, I am excited that my Executive Team is now complete and positioned to lead the company into its next chapter of growth and transformation,” he said.