Okay, good morning, everybody, and welcome back. I'm Steve Powers. I'm the head of Deutsche Bank's U.S. Consumer Staples franchise, and I am thrilled to welcome back Estée Lauder and CFO Tracey Travis. This has become somewhat of a tradition for us, and I look forward to it every year, so thanks for rejoining us.
Well, it's one of our favorite conferences, so thank you for having us back. We were sorry to miss it last year.
Okay. So we're gonna dive right in. And I actually wanna pick up with the Profit Recovery Plan. There's gonna be a lot of topic, a lot of discussion of top-line trends.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
But I think this is, as we move into fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, this is becoming—this is gonna become increasingly important. And I know you've spoken about many of the benefits, you know, being borne in gross margin. I'd love to begin just getting a sense of the different contributors and initiatives that underpin those contributions, and maybe a little bit of description about, you know, how... where the savings are gonna come from.
Mm-hmm.
You know, how much is gonna come from reduced obsolescence versus more normalized promotions versus true cost savings, etc.?
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's probably helpful just to talk a bit about the journey that we've been on this year that you know positions us for the Profit Recovery Plan. So obviously, it's been a bit of a challenging couple of years for the company. You know, one of the things you know as we emerge from the pandemic in many of our markets and some of the actions that we've taken to really get both our internal inventory under better control, given some of the shocks that we experienced, as well as some of the inventory and trade, specifically as it relates to Asia Travel Retail, you know required us to really pull back significantly on production.
When you look at, you know, our third quarter results and the fact, you know, we called it an inflection point, and we're returning to growth, we returned to growth really by taking some hard actions in the first half of the year to, you know, recover, if you will, from some of the effects of the pandemic and what it had on us. Now that we're in a position to grow, you know, we're shipping replenishment back to Asia Travel Retail, we wanna make sure we grow at a margin that is acceptable, obviously, from a company standpoint. So the Profit Recovery Plan is an acceleration of margin recovery-
Mm-hmm
... as we grow. And it was important for us to take the actions, in particular in gross margin, as you indicate, Steve, in order for us to make sure... Growth at our current margin level obviously would not be something that we would that would be acceptable. And so, a lot of our focus, when you think about where we've lost a lot of gross margin, a lot of it has been in gross margin, and so gross margin recovery is certainly the big focus area for us. It helps to fuel growth, having, you know, the higher gross margins.
And the areas that we're focused on in gross margin primarily are with some of the inventory work that we've done, that will certainly help us in terms of obsolescence. It will also help us in terms of discounting, and so we should start to see those benefits, obviously, over the next few quarters. And that's been an important element of our Profit Recovery Plan. So we've already done that. We've already positioned ourselves to start to realize some of those savings. We've also invested in changes in process, as well as really leveraging some of our tools a bit more to help our supply chain in terms of demand forecasting and try to get our SKU forecast accuracy up.
That too will help us in terms of discounts and obsolescence. The other thing that we have focused on is innovation, and obviously, innovation is key in our industry. As we looked at our future pipeline of innovation, we have basically cut the tail, if you will, on some of the innovation that was less accretive, and that allows us to focus resources on the bigger, more, more profitable growth programs. And you know, some of which we launched in the second half of this year, which we'll see the full benefit of next year. But that was also an important enabler for us in terms of gross margin recovery.
And then the last area that we're focused on is really looking at our footprint in terms of manufacturing and making sure that we are, you know, right-sizing, if you will, some of our manufacturing expenses to the level of production as we ramp back up production. And so those are areas that will manifest themselves in terms of gross margin recovery. In terms of expense areas, and that's the other obviously area that's important for us from a margin recovery standpoint, you know, there are two primary areas of focus. One is on procurement, and so we've got an accelerated indirect procurement program to really look at our spend, and in some cases, eliminate spend, in other cases, leverage our cost a bit better with our supply base.
And then the other area, obviously, is restructuring, which we talked about in the February call.
Sure.
So those are the key elements. There are lots of programs underneath those, as you can well imagine, but those are some of the key areas of the Profit Recovery Plan that we're focused on executing against.
Okay, very good. I will say that in my haste and excitement to get started, I forgot to mention that there was a disclosure slide, which I'm sure you all saw before we started. If someone would like to put that back up, feel free, so people can look at it again, but I just wanted to make sure we highlighted that.
Mm-hmm.
That is my oversight, so I apologize. And if we think about the contributions of those various saving, is it fair to assume sort of a third of the benefits to come from obsolescence, a third from sort of promotional normalization and simplification, and then a third from some of the procurement and restructuring incentives, or is it skewed?
Yeah
... more disproportionately than that?
You know, well, as we said on our last call, we'll give more specific guidance in our August call, when we give guidance in terms of the cadence of, you know, of how we expect the recovery to occur. But I, you know, I don't think that's completely out of line.
Okay.
But-
Very good.
It's not exact.
Okay. So the program overall is expected to yield 1.1-1.4 of incremental net operating profit flow through.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe you can give us a sense of the magnitude of the reinvestment opportunity that sits above those numbers.
Mm-hmm.
Just so we get a sense of how much... So I think there is a fear that, if those savings all flow through, that there's not enough investment going to the business to spur a growth recovery. So maybe you can help dispel that notion.
Yeah. So we haven't to your point, the $1.1 billion -$1.4 billion range of net savings that we expect to come over two years, in the program, you know, is a net number. And we're actually targeting higher from a growth standpoint. You know, the reinvestment will occur as the savings occur. And so, you know, we are very much committed to flowing through the savings that we have committed to. But again, the programs actually generate more than that. So, you know, you'll see the pace of reinvestment accelerate throughout Fiscal 2025 as we start to realize, you know, savings from this program.
That's, you know, very important as we look at some of the markets that, you know, we have been more challenging for us. Making sure we've got investment behind our brands that are growing, investment behind distribution expansion. When you think about our business, what's important for us, it's a growth business. So Prestige Beauty is, you know, a growth category.
Mm-hmm.
It is, you know, has been growing anywhere between high single and low double digit in most markets.
Yeah
... most of the measured markets that we measure, with the exception of China, which obviously has had more challenges as it relates to the recovery. So it's a great growth opportunity for us. What's important from a financial structure standpoint is that we have strong gross margins so that we can invest in advertising-
Mm-hmm
... in distribution expansion for our brands, and in the education that we do to consumers as well. And so, you know, that program, this program is a growth-fueling program in addition to a margin recovery program.
Okay. And the program, as you've articulated before, is skewed slightly towards Fiscal 2025 versus Fiscal 2026. So assuming that's correct-
Mm-hmm
... I interpret that as kind of $600 million plus contribution to fiscal 2025. Is that a fair-
I would underscore slight.
... interpretation? Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough.
Yeah.
Okay. It's 550+. Very good. I do want to get to growth, but I want to break our traditional habit of leaving capital allocation to the end.
Mm-hmm.
you know, as the business makes good on that profit recovery, there should be lots of free cash flow that follows.
Mm-hmm.
I'm curious as to, given all of the work you have going on organically to reaccelerate growth, how do you prioritize that cash flow in terms of, obviously, there's reinvestment back in the business, but to the extent there's excess free cash flow-
Mm-hmm
... is it returning that cash to shareholders, or is the business in a position to lean into M&A, you know, as it goes through this recovery?
Well, I'm sure you saw the announcement that we did complete the remaining acquisition of Deciem, the Ordinary brand, and so, so we are now the full owners of Deciem, so that is certainly an acquisition that we have prioritized. We just anniversaried our one-year acquisition of Tom Ford. So, in terms of free cash flow, yes. I mean, just the work that we've done on inventory has freed up, you know, cash. And, obviously, you know, the processes that we've put in place to continue to keep that inventory level more disciplined is a big fueler of ours, obviously, as it relates to free cash flow.
For the acquisitions that we've done recently, we have taken on additional debt, and so in addition to returning cash to shareholders, we are also returning cash to our debt holders as well.
Mm-hmm.
I would say that, along with focusing on the PRP and the turnaround of the business, is our primary focus right now.
Okay.
We are always, you know, scanning the market for where we believe, you know, where we see real growth opportunity, margin accretive growth opportunity. Luxury skincare is an area that, you know, the La Mer brand has done incredibly well. You know, in the competitive space, other brands in luxury skincare have done incredibly well. We have refocused the Estée Lauder brand in some of our Asian markets on Re-Nutriv, in addition to the other franchises, because that is the top-of-the-line in terms of their skincare, while we also have The Ordinary, which is-
Mm-hmm
... entry price point skincare. So, that's, you know, the you know, balance between shareholders and debt holders are the near-term-
Yeah.
The near-term focus areas. But if there is an acquisition that, you know, that we see that we're interested in, and we always have a pipeline of things that, gee, if they were to come to market, we certainly would want to be able to participate in. That's something that we would do once we satisfy our debt holders and, you know, and some of our shareholders.
Okay. How do you view the M&A landscape today relative to history? Is the market conducive to M&A in Prestige Beauty, or you know, more conducive, less conducive than, or you know, kind of evergreen?
Yeah, I mean, interest rates have, you know, obviously stabilized a bit. They're still, you know, high. But when you look at the growth categories of the industry, I mean, it's still an attractive industry, you know, for the right, for the right asset. So I think, you know, the environment is conducive to M&A, and I think you will probably see more of it, you know, over the next few months.
Okay. All right, one more question, then we'll get to growth.
Okay.
On the free cash flow recovery, should we expect that to come... I mean, obviously, there's the inventory rebalancing-
Mm-hmm.
-that you've got going on. Is it really limited to profit recovery? Or we've talked in the past about, you know, reducing, you know, time to market, you know, making the supply chain more efficient. You've got the plant now opened up in Tokyo-
Mm-hmm.
which I over time should reduce cycle times.
Right.
You know, is there working capital benefits to unlock, as we go through this recovery above and beyond near-term inventory reductions, or is that future?
Yeah, I mean, you know, we've reached a pretty, you know, good level of inventory right now. We do have plans to further reduce over time-
Sure
... the inventory, and certainly the agility that you mentioned of building a value chain in Asia, given you know, given the growth that we expect to continue to happen in the Asian market, will provide us with some additional inventory savings, as it relates to working capital.
Sure.
We also expect some savings in other areas as well of working capital, like payables-
Yeah
... and receivables, et cetera.
Okay, great. Okay, so from a top-line perspective-
Mm-hmm
... the second half of fiscal 2024 had been, you know, positioned for some time as an important inflection point, where growth was expected to resume and then, you know, presumably continue, accelerate into fiscal 2025.
Mm-hmm.
We've hit that inflection point.
Mm-hmm.
Where are you today most excited, most encouraged, versus where do you see more work ahead?
Yeah. Well, the work ahead certainly is the Profit Recovery Plan. It also is the area that I'm most excited about.
Mm-hmm.
Because, you know, a lot of the work streams that we have going on under the Profit Recovery Plan certainly are, you know, to accelerate margin, but they're also to reduce some of the complexity that's built up over time in the company. And so we recognize that this is a real opportunity for us to take actions to become more agile.
Mm-hmm.
We are focused on, to your point, innovation, and how do we, you know, speed to market more innovation, whether it's product innovation or commercial innovation. That's, you know, increasingly important in every market, as you know, the attractiveness of the category brings in, you know, lots of competitors. And so, you know, that ability to be more nimble in terms of, bringing innovation to market or commercial innovation to market, we have a very broad array of brands, and products within each of our brands, so commercial activation and innovation becomes, critically important, as well.
So the conversations that we're having with our teams are very motivating and energetic in terms of, you know, how we're going to, as we're now positioning ourself for growth and creating more fuel for growth, how we're going to operate a bit differently to, you know, in a faster-paced way in a faster-paced market.
Mm-hmm. Okay. In that commercial innovation act, how backlogged were—or I guess, how restrained were you from pushing forward with, you know, marketplace activation and innovation as you were trying to reduce inventory levels, you know, up until April first? And how quickly can you turn on that spigot in terms of accelerating commercial activity?
Yeah, I mean, one of the things that we're very much focused on, we're seeing increasingly consumers react to trends. And so, you know, our model from a marketing activation standpoint, you know, is very thoughtful and planful, as it should be. But one of the things that we're really focused on, and brands like The Ordinary in our portfolio, Too Faced has gotten much better at this as well, is not only seeing trends and being able to respond from a commercial activation standpoint and then bringing product to market if the trend actually is a longer-term trend, but also creating trends.
Mm.
And so, you know, the enhanced data that we have enabled over the last few years to really be able to read and react what's happening in social media that could mean a meaningful trend for our, you know, our brands has been very important. So we have a lot of the elements there in making sure that, you know, our teams, in particular our local markets, because we are seeing trends more and more become local. I mean, there are global trends, certainly, but it's very important that our local markets are enabled with both the resources and the talent to actually activate trends and be able to capitalize on them when they happen.
And so we're doing that really well in some markets, and we have opportunity in other markets, and our markets themselves are incredibly excited about that focus for them to be able to do that.
... Great. Now, you, you did hit the inflection. We are going to accelerate in the fourth quarter, but the guidance for the fourth quarter, from a revenue standpoint, was slightly below what had been implied-
Mm-hmm.
-based on, where 3Q was supposed to land.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe you could just talk through some of the puts and takes there.
Yeah.
What's sort of, you know, on or ahead of schedule? What's holding back versus your prior outlook?
Yeah.
That'd be helpful.
Yeah, the biggest reason that we were more muted on our fourth quarter was in the third quarter, and we talked about this obviously on the third quarter call, that China, the recovery has been slower.
Mm-hmm.
That is China and China Travel Retail. Now, obviously, we have a, you know, bit of a different situation because we're, you know, resuming some of the shipments in parts of China Travel Retail. So we're seeing shipment growth.
Mm.
but the acceleration in terms of traffic has been uneven.
Yes.
We've seen fits and starts as it relates to traffic and really the consumption of traffic along their travel journey. That's the reason why, as we actually saw in Mainland China, a slowdown in Prestige Beauty in the third quarter-
Mm.
That which was a surprise to us and I think many, many others, that we pulled down the fourth quarter related to that softness. So, and again, you know, we remind ourselves that China is still in recovery. We're seeing consumers understandably similar to what we saw in Europe as well as in the Americas when restrictions were lifted and people started resuming normal activities. You know, the priority was on seeing family, it was on travel, it was on, you know, dining and entertainment, and a bit less on goods. And so they're much, you know, obviously later in that cycle than our other markets that, you know, that have been in recovery.
APAC, you know, has been growing strongly all year outside of the China area. Europe, the markets of Europe, you know, outside of travel retail, have been going quite nicely, and even within travel retail, European travel retail and the Americas have been growing nicely. So it really is this last pocket of recovery, if you will, that we have with China that has just been a bit flatter,
Right
... in terms of the recovery than what we had anticipated.
We're coming up on what has or had become a very important shopping holiday in 6.18.
Mm-hmm.
Singles Day 11.11 had been soft. You know, any early indications or... Embedded in that fourth quarter guidance, I'm assuming, is a relatively, you know, prudent assumption around 6.18 strength, but maybe you could elaborate if, if-
It was our assumption at the time in terms of 6.18, yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. Very good. As we look forward, you know, and what, I guess let's, let's break this between Asia travel retail and Hainan and then Mainland China, but focusing on travel retail, as we look forward from here, so it's softer than hoped for, softer than expected. What's the kind of medium-term expectation in terms of recovery?
It's still a very important channel of distribution and growth for us.
Yeah.
When you think about Travel Retail, and in particular, when you think about it relative to emerging market consumers, oftentimes just given our, you know, lack of distribution in some of the emerging markets that, you know, have been growing double-digit for us, but we have limited distribution, and so oftentimes the first time a consumer will interact with any one of our brands, physically, is in an airport. And so Travel Retail remains a very, you know, a very important distribution channel for us. And we expect Travel Retail to grow, you know, over the next few years. So, one of the things that we're doing in Travel Retail, we have an opportunity to expand our fragrance portfolio in Travel Retail.
Our fragrance portfolio has been doing quite well with Tom Ford and Jo Malone and Le Labo and Frédéric Malle and Kilian. And so that's a big focus of ours, as well, not only in travel retail, but also certainly in markets like Europe, where we have more opportunity for expansion. We are adding back some staff in travel retail that obviously when people weren't traveling, we didn't have the staff there. So, selectively, as we see conversion traffic and conversion pickup, we're adding back staff, and we've certainly done that in markets here in Europe as well as in the Americas and throughout selective markets in Asia. You know, one of the things, you know, Asia Travel Retail is a bit different than-
Yeah
... than Europe and the U.S., Eventing becomes very important in Asia travel retail. So we're starting to resume some of the big events that our brands have done to really draw attention to some of the new innovation that we've done. We've done some additional eventing in Hainan, which has gone well. And we'll do that in, you know, in some of the airports in Asia as well, as you know, as traffic resumes and really to help drive the conversion of the traffic in those markets.
Are you more optimistic about the recovery in global travel retail or Asia travel retail? Or another way of saying it, if you think about the next, you know, three, four, five years-
Mm-hmm
... is there more growth to come, you know, on a global basis or in Asia Travel Retail?
... You know, it's a great question. I think in terms of travel, I think travel will pick up globally as it has been. Conversion is very different by region, and so we see more shopping occasions in Asia travel retail than we do in Europe and in the Americas. I think we have more opportunity in Europe travel retail, and the expansion of our fragrance portfolio will help that. But I think Asia travel retail, you know, we would expect traffic, but also more conversion, and that's just been the history of what we've experienced, and certainly we will, you know, continue to fuel that with some of the activities that I spoke about in terms of eventing, et cetera.
Okay. Maybe a similar question on Mainland China and your outlook over the next 12, 24 months. My perception is that despite, you know, the volatility you've been operating through, in the background, you've positioned the company in a lot of ways in a much stronger position, right? There's the Tokyo manufacturing facilities, the Shanghai R&D center-
Mm-hmm.
more distribution centers around the country
Right.
-more diversified online presence-
More brands.
More brands.
I mean, so we've launched... You know, during this period of time, we've launched Le Labo, which has been a tremendous success. We have a fantastic couple of stores in China and more to come. We've launched our Aveda brand in China as well during this time frame. And a lot of the innovation that we focused on in the second half that we talked about on the last call and the call prior to that was in luxury skincare, which should, you know, resonate pretty strongly in China and other parts of Asia and Europe, where luxury skincare is more prevalent.
So we have, I would agree with you, we've positioned ourself well from a, from a commercial standpoint, and we've also positioned ourself from a supply chain standpoint to have more agility. And so, you know, if there are further disruptions, which I would hope we wouldn't experience anything like the disruptions that we've experienced over the last couple of years, but we have more flexibility in our supply chain. We also have more R&D capability on the ground, and the focus there will be to get products faster to market that are locally relevant.
Mm-hmm.
So, yes, I mean, we still, you know, maintain a tremendous amount of optimism for the growth of Asia overall, China, in addition to Greater China, in addition to markets like Japan and Korea and Southeast Asia, which are important focus areas for us as well.
Great. Okay, let's maybe talk about trends, you know, from a product segment perspective.
Mm-hmm.
We'll start with skincare. Obviously, it's closely tied to China, closely tied to travel retail, but independent of that, how do you view the overall competitive position of the portfolio? Thinking about contributions not only from brands like La Mer and Estée Lauder at the high end of prestige, but also The Ordinary in the U.S. or Clinique in what you've now positioned in Active Derm.
Yeah. We feel very good about the portfolio, and, so to your point, you know, luxury skincare, in particular in our eastern markets, has been-
Mm-hmm.
A big growth area. La Mer has done quite well. Estée Lauder has the Re-Nutriv franchise, which is their luxury-positioned part of their portfolio. And a lot of our innovation, some of our breakthrough innovation has come through in the Re-Nutriv franchise, which we've just launched in the latter part of this year, and so we expect to see full benefits of that next year. The Ordinary has been a phenomenal success for us, and, and we are so pleased now to be the full owners of that brand. And, you know, that is a brand that we've launched in India and the Middle East to much success.
Practically, or pretty much every market that we've launched it in, it's taken a top, you know, three or four position in the distribution channels that that it's in, which is largely specialty, multi, and obviously online. So we're positioned well at the entry price point, in terms of skincare, of prestige.
Yeah.
Clinique, you know, was the original derm brand, and so, you know, reactivating the positioning of Clinique, repartnering with dermatologists, the brand was actually developed, you know, with dermatologists initially. So many of the formulas of Clinique, today that have been around for a number of years were actually developed and partnered with dermatologists. So, recommunicating that and reminding consumers of that is certainly something that, you know, has been important for us to be able to do, and, and much of their innovation going forward will very much reinforce that derm positioning, not only for skincare, but also, you know, fragrance-free makeup, and, and some of the sensitive, you know, positioning, sensitive skin positioning that they have for makeup, in particular foundation. So both Active Derm as well as sensitive skin, the Clinique brand.
You know, we have. Actually, we don't talk about it as much, but Bobbi Brown-
Mm-hmm.
You know, clearly a makeup artist brand, but they have a decent part of their portfolio, about a third of their portfolio is skincare.
Mm-hmm.
It resonates quite well, particularly in Asia, but also in many Western markets. You know, that also is a focus for the Bobbi Brown brand. We are well represented across various price points within our portfolio for skincare and across various different segments of skincare to position, you know, for younger consumers as well as our more mature population, I'll say.
On The Ordinary's geographic expansion, are there priority markets with white space that you see still, or are you more focused on developing the footprint that you've currently established?
Oh, no, there's more white space. Yeah, The Ordinary is not fully distributed at all, so there's definitely more white space. Actually, Steve, for most of the brands in our portfolio, there's more white space opportunities. So the most broadly distributed brands that we have are Estée Lauder and Clinique.
Yep.
Even those brands, when you think about either emerging markets or even a market like China, where, you know, the Estée Lauder brand has around 145. It's our most broadly distributed brand in China. It's in about 145 cities, but, you know, through online, we have sales represented in over 700 cities. Even for some of our more broadly distributed brands, you know, there's an opportunity for further, you know, distribution and expansion, and not just brick-and-mortar distribution. I mean, one of the benefits we have in emerging markets, oftentimes we will launch on a pure-play platform or with our own brand site.
We'll see how the distribution or how the demand builds, and that allows us to actually enter into the market in brick-and-mortar distribution in a very productive and profitable way. And that's been our emerging market, market focus. That's worked quite, quite well for us in many of our priority emerging markets.
Great. Maybe a similar question on makeup. M·A·C , Clinique, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, those are the, you know, the kind of anchor franchises. But, I was particularly interested with the recent entry of Tom Ford into couture makeup, which I know has been a priority for you for a while.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And just interested in what that move signals in terms of potential change for the company from just positioning of that overall portfolio.
Yeah. So makeup has been since, you know, very early stages of our development of the TOM FORD brand, along with Tom, at the time. You know, it started as a fragrance brand, but very quickly moved into makeup. So makeup is a big part of-
Yeah
... of the TOM FORD brand strategy, and it is couture. You know, we have some very exciting innovation coming in 2025 for makeup, recognizing that couture makeup in certain markets has been, you know, the fastest-growing part of the makeup category. And TOM FORD, you know, is our brand right now that has couture makeup, and so that will be a big focus for the company. You know, we've also announced that we have a licensing arrangement with Balmain.
Mm-hmm.
We will be launching, and we're very excited about that as well. When you think about the success that we've had with the TOM FORD brand, to have, you know, success as well with the Balmain brand, which will start like we did with TOM FORD, with fragrances, but will also eventually expand into makeup as well. So we're well-positioned. You know, we see the couture makeup trend to be a longer-term trend. It certainly has been a trend for the last few years, and we believe with those two brands and perhaps others in the future, but for those two brands, we will be well-positioned in that, in that category.
See, that's why I led with M&A.
Yeah. I see.
Okay. What about the core of the makeup franchise? What's your assessment of brands like M·A·C ? You know, is there more work to do there, or are you satisfied with the trajectory of that business?
Yeah, I mean, M·A·C has. You know, makeup now is on an upward trend, and M·A·C has come out with some very strong innovation in the second half of this year. When you think about our M·A·C brand, you know, it's still, you know, the top number one prestige makeup globally.
Mm-hmm.
So it's, you know, there are a lot of consumers that use M·A·C . M·A·C represents a lot of different things from a brand standpoint, but, you know, the breadth of their makeup assortment is unmatched in terms of the, you know, the color range for color cosmetics, for foundation. You know, you know, and consumers know when they go in, if they're looking for, you know, a particular shade, you're gonna find it in M·A·C . And so, you know, that is, you know, very important from a M·A·C standpoint. So M·A·C is really focused on, as we see the importance of trends picking up in the market, is very much focused on their trend program.
M·A·C has historically led trends in makeup, and that is still a focus area for theirs going forward. So I think, you know, we're expecting to see some exciting innovation come out of the M·A·C brand, you know, in 2025 and 2026.
Great. And last but not least, fragrances. Think about the last 10 years and the transformation of Estée Lauder's fragrance portfolio. It's been truly pretty incredible. It used to be viewed as a clear weak spot.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I think it's an area of agreed-upon strength. Are there ways to further round out that portfolio, or are you happy with the way it stands today?
Oh, we're very happy with our fragrance portfolio. You know, we took the decision, Steve, as you know, a few years ago, to really reposition our fragrance portfolio. We had historically Estée Lauder and Clinique. Obviously, the company, you know, with Estée Lauder fragrances was a big part of the original launch of the company in terms of the fragrance portfolio. So Estée Lauder and Clinique have had, you know, have a heritage line of fragrances. We had a designer fragrance portfolio. It was largely a U.S.-centric fragrance portfolio, and where we were seeing growth, and profitable growth-
Mm-hmm.
For our portfolio, was in the luxury and artisanal fragrances. So Jo Malone is a fantastic grower, profitably for us, and very sizable. It, you know, it is one of our top brands in terms of size. Tom Ford is a pretty close second. Obviously, it's fragrance and cosmetics. And so, when we look at those brands, you know, it's very different because we've seen a trend in fragrances where historically, and still to a certain extent, consumers want their signature fragrance, and they have one fragrance, and they buy that fragrance, and they stick with that fragrance, and that's their signature scent. What we've seen more a trend, and particularly with younger consumers, but not just, is people want a collection of fragrances.
So I have my day fragrance, my evening fragrance, my weekend fragrance, and, you know, a collection of fragrances like Tom Ford and Jo Malone allow us to keep consumers within the franchise-
Mm.
as they are broadening their array of fragrance interests. Le Labo, Frédéric Malle, Kilian now, all of the fragrances that we've acquired in recent years, and have expanded, are in that category of a collection of fragrances. And so it's very much the trend that we see in fragrances. The fragrance category, in general, has grown. We expect that it will continue to grow. It was one of the big surprises during the pandemic-
Mm.
-that people were actually using fragrance at home. It represents pampering, it represents, you know, signature and individuality, and, and so we're, we're very pleased. There's still a lot of runway for our fragrance portfolio. Jo Malone still has opportunity, even, you know, given its size. Tom Ford has, opportunity as well. And, and then, you know, Frédéric Malle, Le Labo, and Killian are very, you know, have much more opportunity from a distribution standpoint. So we have a lot of runway within our fragrance, fragrance portfolio. And there are some exciting things happening with, with the Estée Lauder and Clinique fragrances, in the upcoming months that, that we'll, we'll share at the appropriate time.
Great. We're almost out of time. I want to give you the last word.
Okay.
What should investors keep most top of mind as they think about... I know many in this room and outside this room are thinking about Estée Lauder as an incremental investment opportunity. What might those on the outside, currently be missing or not fully understanding?
Well, first of all, we want to thank our investors for, for, hanging in there with us. Obviously, it's been, you know, a challenging time. I think the one thing I would love for investors to understand is, you know, we've taken some actions this year that have been tough and obviously, you know, starting at the end of our last fiscal year, to really position ourselves to be at the inflection point that we talked about on the third quarter call, for growth. The Profit Recovery Plan allows us to accelerate margin growth. You know, our focus is and has always been on long-term, sustainable, profitable growth, and that is the model that we are very much committed to getting back to.
And so that's really what I would leave investors with, that you know, the things that we've experienced over the last couple of quarters have really positioned us in terms of bringing our inventory levels down, you know, some of the acceleration and focus on innovation that we've had to expand our portfolio and to grow. So the next couple of years should be quite exciting.
Very good. We will leave it with that.
Okay.
Tracy, Estée Lauder, thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you.
Thank you all for joining us as well.