By Sabela Ojea
Estée Lauder's longtime finance chief Tracey Travis is leaving the beauty company after more than a decade in the role.
The conglomerate of cosmetics brands on Thursday said that Travis, who in 2012 joined the company from Ralph Lauren, is retiring on June 30, 2025.
The company has identified a successor to Travis, and they will work closely to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities, Estée Lauder said.
Women's Wear Daily reported on Travis's pending departure earlier Thursday.
The news follows the exit of Deirdre Stanley as general counsel in April and comes as the company goes through a restructuring plan aimed at cutting costs, boosting margins and increasing the speed of innovation. Last month, Travis said the company would give more details about how it expects the recovery to occur by the time it publishes its fiscal fourth quarterly results in August.
"This program is a growth-fueling program in addition to a margin-recovery program," Travis said at a Deutsche Bank conference in June. "What's important from a financial structure standpoint is that we have strong gross margins, so that we can invest in advertising, in distribution expansion for our brands, and in the education that we do to consumers as well."
Estée Lauder most recently guided for a steeper-than-expected drop in full-year sales as it deals with continuing softness in the prestige beauty market in mainland China and travel retail, and flat sales in its home market, North America.
Estée Lauder's stock has dropped 30% over the past three months and is down about 47% over the past 12 months.
Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-11-24 1845ET
