Shiseido Americas is the latest beauty giant to trim its headcount.
“Shiseido Americas has undertaken a business transformation to return to growth and profitability. As part of this process, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles within the company and a number of our employees have been adversely impacted,” the company said in a statement. “We are grateful to our departing colleagues for their contributions to Shiseido Americas and we will provide these employees with transition support.”
The company declined to quantify how many roles were impacted.
“As we know all too well, today, Shiseido Americas finds itself deeply challenged on multiple fronts. Despite our best efforts and hard work, business performance has declined significantly through 2024, and the 2025 outlook remains bleak,” wrote Alberto Noé, the company’s interim chief executive officer, in the memo. CEO Ron Gee departed the organization in April.
Noé went on to note broader challenges impacting the beauty market both in the U.S. and globally, such as high inflation and “economic uncertainty.”
“This untenable combination of factors has led to a truly difficult decision. Today, as we work to secure the viability of our organization, we undertake a wide-ranging and significant reduction in our workforce. These layoffs will impact many employees across multiple businesses, functions and locations.”
The layoffs were revealed in an internal memo first posted by the Instagram account @esteelaundry and understood by WWD to be authentic. The memo was dated Wednesday.
According to the company’s global financial results for the first quarter, released in May, declines of 19 percent in the Americas were largely driven by Drunk Elephant, which fell more than 60 percent. Conversely, Shiseido’s namesake brand and Clé de Peau Beauté both posted gains in the low-single and high-teen percentage, respectively.
Shiseido isn’t the only company feeling broader headwinds. Last year the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc.’s CEO Stéphane de La Faverie unveiled his “Beauty Reimagined” strategy to ignite growth at the conglomerate, which included a reduction in headcount estimated to be as large as 7,000. In April, Coty Inc. cut 700 jobs. Last week, rumors circulated that L’Oréal was considering merging its Hong Kong and mainland China offices in a move that would affect 200 employees, though the company denied the claims.
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