Lauren Lieberman's questions to Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL) leadership • Q4 2025
Question
Lauren Lieberman from Barclays focused on North America, asking about the strategy for balancing distribution channels given the challenges in department stores and whether the company would consider more aggressive actions to reduce its exposure to this channel.
Answer
President and CEO Stéphane de La Faverie highlighted North America's improving performance and recent market share gains, driven by expanded consumer coverage, particularly through 11 brands on Amazon. He noted that while department stores require more work, they are a shrinking part of the business. EVP and CFO Akhil Shrivastava added that department stores now represent less than one-third of the North American business, which is now more diversified across DTC, Amazon, and specialty-multi channels, with further growth opportunities in the latter.