Estee Lauder

Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The company has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

History


The company began in 1946 when Joseph Lauder and his wife Estée Lauder (Josephine Esther Mentzer) began producing cosmetics in New York City. They first carried only four products: Super-Rich All Purpose Creme, Creme Pack, Cleansing Oil, and Skin Lotion. Two years later, they established their first department store account with Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.

Over the next fifteen years, they expanded the range and continued to sell their products in the United States. In 1960, the company started its first international account in the London department store Harrods. The following year it opened an office in Hong Kong.

In 1964, they started Aramis Inc. Designed by Arame Yeranyan, with the fragrance named after Yeremes - a city in Armenia. This produced fragrances and grooming products for men. In 1967, Estée Lauder herself was named one of ten Outstanding Women in Business in the United States by business and financial editors. This was followed by a Spirit of Achievement Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in 1968. In that year, the company expanded again, opening Clinique Laboratories, Inc. Clinique was the first dermatologist guided (Dr. Norman Orentreich), allergy tested, fragrance free cosmetic brand created by Estée Lauder.

Estée Lauder's Clinique brand became the first women's cosmetic company to introduce a second line for men when, in 1976, they began a separate line called "Skin Supplies for Men", which continues to be sold at Clinique counters worldwide. In 1981, the company's products became available in the Soviet Union.

In February 2004, the company's teen-oriented jane business was sold; in April 2006, the professional-quality Stila brand, which Estée Lauder purchased in 1999, was sold.

The company has had sometimes iconic spokesmodels, sometimes referred to simply as 'faces'. Past 'faces' for Estée Lauder include Karen Graham, Bruce Boxleitner, Shaun Casey, Willow Bay, Paulina Porizkova, Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy, Anja Rubik, and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. the main spokesmodel for Estée Lauder is supermodel Hilary Rhoda. In 2010, the company added three more faces to the roster, Chinese model Liu Wen, Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls and French model Constance Jablonski. Their first campaigns will come out June 2010, and will be shot by Craig McDean.

, Estée Lauder sold its products in department stores across the world and has a chain of freestanding retail outlets. On July 1, 2010, the company acquired Smashbox Beauty Cosmetics, Inc., a brand created in Smashbox Studios in Culver City, California by brothers Dean and Davis Factor (as in Max).

On October 28, 2011, Aramis and Designer Fragrances, a division of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and Tory Burch LLC announced the signing of a multi-year agreement for the exclusive worldwide license of the Tory Burch fragrance business. This partnership marks Tory Burch's first step into the beauty industry. The first Tory Burch fragrance products are expected to be introduced in 2013.



Finances
(the end of the fiscal year), Estée Lauder, for the first time, has sales of more than $10 billion.

Corporate governance
Current members of the Board of Directors of Estée Lauder Companies Inc. are: Charlene Barshefsky, Rose Marie Bravo, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Fabrizio Freda, Paul J. Fribourg, Mellody Hobson, Irvine Hockaday, Aerin Lauder, Jane Lauder, Leonard Lauder, William P. Lauder, Richard Parsons, Barry Sternlicht and Richard F. Zannino.

Management
The company is still controlled by the Lauder family, which controls about 70% of voting shares, and Estée's son Leonard Lauder is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors. William P. Lauder, a grandson, is Executive Chairman. On July 1, 2009, Fabrizio Freda became President and CEO. Effective March 31, 2014, Guillaume Jesel will hold "the newly created post of senior vice president and general manager of global corporate innovation.

Executive development
As of 2013, Estée Lauder company has "introduced a professional and personal development program" for roughly 90 Britain-based executives, "based on a model started by Leonard Lauder in 1987". The program is based at Oxford University. Dr. Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox, was a keynote speaker. On 8 August 2013, the four-day training event will end "with a glittering graduation ceremony and dinner at nearby Blenheim Palace, the country's grandest stately home and family seat of Leonard Lauder's friend, the Duke of Marlborough." Chris Good, managing director at the Estée Lauder U.K., plans to run the program "every other year to continue fostering employee development, with participants chosen on the basis of their performance and potential".

Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign (BCA)
In October 1992, the BCA campaign was launched by Evely H. Lauder who co-created the "Pink Ribbon" with SELF magazine as a symbol of breast health. Since then, millions of people globally have heard the message about the importance of breast health and early detection can save lives. The Estée Lauder Companies’ annual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign involves all of the 18 brands that make up The Estée Lauder Companies. They collectively represent The Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s first and largest corporate supporter. Estée's daughter-in-law created BCRF's signature pink ribbon.

Over $10 million was raised for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation between 1993 and summer 2003. Another $1 million was raised from their retail partners between July 2002 and summer 2003.

Brands
Estée Lauder has a total of 27 brands which include:


 * American Beauty
 * Aramis
 * Aveda
 * Bobbi Brown
 * Bumble and bumble
 * Clinique
 * Coach
 * Daisy Fuentes (divested)
 * Darphin
 * Donald Trump The Fragrance (discontinued)
 * Donna Karan


 * Estée Lauder
 * Flirt!
 * Good Skin
 * Grassroots
 * Jo Malone
 * Kate Spade (divested)
 * Kiton
 * Knowing
 * Lab Series
 * La Mer
 * M·A·C
 * Marni
 * Michael Kors


 * Missoni
 * Ojon
 * Origins
 * Prescriptives (as of January 31, 2010, available only on-line)
 * Sean John Fragrances (divested)
 * Smashbox Cosmetics
 * Stila (sold)
 * Tommy Hilfiger
 * Tom Ford Beauty
 * Tory Burch (launching in October 2013)
 * Ermenegildo Zegna

Boycott
Since at least February 2001, Estée Lauder and its brands have been the target of a boycott campaign. The boycott has been led by pro-Palestinian activists who have targeted the corporation because of the pro-Israel activities of Ronald Lauder. In June 2003, the San Francisco-based Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT) took up the boycott with their "Estee Slaughter" campaign. The boycott has generated an anti-boycott campaign by supporters of Israel.

Animal Testing
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. writes on its website that the company conducts animal testing on products and ingredients when required by law. The company is listed on PETAs companies that “either test on animals or pay a laboratory to conduct tests on animals” list.

SOPA
Estee Lauder Companies appeared on lists of major companies supporting SOPA, the controversial, but unsuccessful, Congressional anti-piracy bill that was considered overreaching by critics.