La Prairie Names New CEO
PARIS — La Prairie Group has named Estelle Létang chief executive officer, effective April 1.
At the prestige beauty brand, the seasoned Estée Lauder Cos. executive will report directly to Patrick Rasquinet, a member of the executive board at Beiersdorf, La Prairie’s parent company.
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Létang is to be based in La Prairie’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. She succeeds Philippe Lamy in the CEO role.
La Prairie said in a statement her responsibilities will include steering its strategic direction and long-term vision. Létang is to oversee daily management of the company’s business operations, commercial priorities and infrastructure worldwide.
For the past 21 years, she has worked at Lauder, starting at Darphin in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. While in the latter city, the executive was appointed Asia Pacific vice president/general manager for La Mer and Jo Malone London. In 2016, Létang became vice president/general manager international of Jo Malone London, based in the U.K. capital. And since 2020, she has lived in Dubai, serving as general manager of the Middle East zone for Lauder.
“With an impressive proven track record in the beauty and cosmetics industry — across fragrance, makeup and skin care — Estelle brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on expertise to La Prairie,” Rasqinet said in a statement. “We are happy to have found someone so accomplished to lead our beautiful brand and to inspire our passionate people in the next stage of the La Prairie journey.”
“Within the world of beauty, La Prairie stands out as the pinnacle of luxury and excellence,” Létang said. “The opportunities lying ahead for La Prairie are vast. I am excited to lead the transformation and to work closely with the talented teams to build the future of La Prairie together.”
La Prairie, like other prestige beauty brands, faced serious headwinds in the travel retail channel and mainland China in 2023. Those caused the brand’s sales to decrease 15.4 percent last year, according to Beiersdorf.
In the 12-month period, the group’s overall sales reached 9.5 billion euros, up 10.8 percent year-on-year on an organic basis.
La Prairie was in the news most recently when Beiersdorf in late February said it plans to buy Clinique La Prairie real estate in Montreux, Switzerland, which would reunite the La Prairie brand with its birthplace.
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