Estée Lauder's UK 'Growth Story' Is Doing a Lot of Work for a Company Still Cutting Jobs

Pernilla Nyberg, Senior VP and General Manager of Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland, told Cosmetics Business that the group's global "Beauty Reimagined" strategy has opened up "multiple levers of growth" in her market, from TikTok Shop to a broader push across retail partners. The framing matters because of what changed structurally to make it possible: chief executive Stéphane de La Faverie's May 2024 reorganization collapsed seven global regions into four and handed P&L control to geographic teams instead of global brand leads, giving a market GM like Nyberg authority to talk about growth strategy in the first place.

That authority arrives inside a company still cutting its way through a restructuring. The Profit Recovery and Growth Plan, launched in November 2023, has repeatedly widened its job-cut target, most recently to as many as 13,000 roles globally, according to CNBC. Over 70% of the latest round targets point-of-sale demonstration staff at what the company calls unproductive doors, meaning ELC is retreating from the beauty-counter model in some channels even as its UK arm redeploys store staff toward TikTok Shop, where MAC lets employees opt into commission for sales they personally drive on the platform, per Affiverse.

The UK's upbeat tone also sits next to the group's actual open wound. Hainan duty-free sales and shopper numbers have fallen more than 25% through 2025, Bloomberg reported, dragging on skincare lines including La Mer and the core Estée Lauder brand for well over a year. ELC has called its Asia travel-retail response a "strategic reset," trimming sell-in to chase healthier pricing with retailers, according to the Moodie Davitt Report. Against that backdrop, a UK GM citing TikTok momentum functions as a counterweight in a company that reported $14.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, down 8% year over year.

Nyberg's own path adds another layer. She spent 2012 to 2020 in ELC's finance and strategy functions, including a stint leading global finance and strategy from New York, before 15 years at Nike and a return to the UK in a global transformation role, according to ELC's own announcement of her appointment. A finance and strategy executive is now the one narrating growth levers to trade press, in a market where Sephora is expanding toward 20 UK stores by the end of 2026 and Ulta Beauty has just bought Space NK, giving rivals fresh capital to chase the same shelf space.