Yahoo Finance Kering Beauté Names President and CEO, Americas
Updated on April 25 at 4:59 p.m. EST
Kering Beauté is bullish on beauty in the Americas — and has named a new president and chief executive officer of the market.
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Alexandre Choueiri, who had spent more than two decades at L’Oréal, will be taking on the newly created role of president and CEO, Kering Beauté Americas.
A joint memo from Kering Beauté CEO Raffaella Cornaggia and Creed CEO Sarah Rotheram, sent Wednesday, announced the hire to retailers in the U.S. and noted Choueiri’s experience in L’Oréal’s Luxe division, most recently as global brand president of Ralph Lauren Fragrances. “During his tenure, he implemented a strategy of brand elevation and a focus on retail flagships, pop-up stores and digital innovation,” the memo read. “He also served as global president of Ralph Lauren fragrances and a member of L’Oréal Luxe’s executive committee. He contributed to the elevation and turnaround of the brand, and its successful expansion into new markets. We are in great hands with Alex, who will oversee the Americas.”
Choueiri wrote a simple “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as CEO and president, Kering Beauté Americas,” on LinkedIn.
The memo also noted pieces of Kering Beauté’s strategy in the U.S., and revealed that Kering has absorbed Creed distributor ICP. Thomas Saujet, CEO and president of the distribution business, “has taken the decision to move on to a new chapter in his career,” the memo said.
“To be clear, Creed will continue to be the top priority of our business, and in the future, we will actively support new brands within the Kering Beauté portfolio,” the memo continued. “Thomas and Alex will be transitioning over the next three months and we will be in touch with you shortly. Please join us in warmly thanking Thomas for his impressive 27 years of service on House of Creed and congratulating Alex for his new position.”
Beauty remains a bright spot as Kering weathers a challenged luxury market. As reported, the company saw sales slide — and predicted double-digit profit drops — in the first quarter. However, Kering eyewear and corporate, which houses Kering Beauté, grew 9 percent in comparable sales in the same time period.
At Kering’s annual general meeting Thursday in Paris, chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault said Kering Beauté now employs 27 people, led by Raffaella Cornaggia, the global CEO of the division.
He said the group’s priority was to bring back in-house its beauty licenses, which it has already done for Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato and Qeelin. He declined to comment on the status of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, whose beauty licenses are held by Coty Inc. and L’Oréal, respectively.
“For contractual reasons, I am not at liberty to disclose when our other licenses will come up for renewal, but the priority will be to bring them back in-house,” he said.
As reported, Kering plans to launch a high-end fragrance range for Bottega Veneta next fall, to be followed by Balenciaga and McQueen perfumes in 2025.
“We are going to start with the top of the pyramid,” he said of its fragrance strategy.
“We will be launching the first fragrances for all our licenses in this segment in order to have stronger visibility and desirability by having extremely exclusive distribution networks when our fragrances hit the market. We will subsequently launch perfumes in the prestige category where most major luxury brands operate,” Pinault added.
He said Creed posted revenues of around 300 million euros last year and had a very high profit margin. Kering sees strong potential for the brand to grow thanks to women’s scents, like the recently launched Queen of Silk, and geographical expansion, especially in Asia.
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