Estee Lauder CEO sees ‘sequentially improving margin’ throughout 2024

Fabrizio Freda, President and CEO said, “We returned to organic sales growth in the fourth quarter, delivering our outlook. Momentum continued in the markets of EMEA and Latin America, and accelerated strongly in Asia/Pacific led by mainland China and Hong Kong SAR. For full-year fiscal 2023, we delivered organic sales growth and prestige beauty share gains in many developed and emerging markets, but Asia travel retail pressured results, particularly in Skin Care, and we continued to experience softness in North America. Fragrance excelled, up double digits in every region, and Makeup improved sequentially to double-digit growth in the fourth quarter as more markets emerged into the post-pandemic era. For fiscal year 2024, we expect to return to organic sales growth and deliver sequentially improving margin throughout the year, leveraging the strong equity and desirability of our brands. We are focused on driving momentum in markets that are thriving and re-accelerating growth in North America. In Asia travel retail, we are taking actions to capture demand from the returning individual travelers and continuing to reduce inventories in the trade as we navigate the current market headwinds. In this new fiscal year, we also intend to set the stage for a stronger fiscal year 2025 acceleration, with a very robust innovation pipeline planned across the two years and progressive margin rebuilding plans.”