"India is extremely strategic for us”

Stéphane de La Faverie, President & CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies, on the Indian market and taking Forest Essentials global

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

The Estée Lauder Companies is going through a period of churn as the global beauty conglomerate—the parent of La Mer, Jo Malone London, Tom Ford, Aerin Beauty, Le Labo, Estée Lauder, and Kilian Paris brands—looks to turn things around amid loss of market share and slowing sales in China. Stéphane de La Faverie, the 51-year-old President and CEO of the $15.6 billion company, took on the task of reviving the brand's fortunes in January. During a recent visit to India, de La Faverie spoke to Business Today’s Krishna Gopalan on the India strategy, emerging trends and what keeps growth going. Edited excerpts:

Q: How different is India from the other markets where you operate?

A: The more time I spend here, the more excited I am about the opportunity. First, it is extremely strategic for us. We have been here for 20 years, and our approach is to innovate constantly. It could be through our partnership with StartUp India to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and empower the next generation of Indian entrepreneurs or launching La Mer or touching consumers through a multitude of pin codes. I see a lot of potential here because of the rise of the middle class.

Just look at the pre-Covid phase and what we have today. The big change in India has been digitalisation. What we see here is almost unheard of in any other part of the world. Things are growing faster and getting bigger, making the opportunity very large. We work with our retail partners like Nykaa or Tira (owned by Reliance Retail). There is a lot that can be done both online as well as in the brick-and-mortar format.

Q: The word strategy is mentioned multiple times in your annual report.