By Rob Curran

Estee Lauder warned it will lay off thousands more employees as the beauty-products maker logged a sharp decline in its fiscal third quarter net income due to ongoing weakness in the once-hot Asian market.

The New York cosmetics giant posted earnings of $159 million, or 44 cents a share, for the quarter ended in March, down from $335 million, or 91 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were 65 cents a share, compared to the mean Wall Street target of 31 cents a share, as per FactSet.

Sales plunged 10% to $3.55 billion, but still edged out the average analyst forecast of $3.52 billion, according to FactSet.

The company's skin-care unit, its largest by revenue, saw sales plunge 12% to $1.81 billion as Estee Lauder's long struggle to regain cache in the Asian market for both its namesake brand and high-end La Mer line continued. Hair-care product sales also fell 12%.

For the fiscal year ending in June, Estee Lauder warned it expects sales to fall by 8% to 9%.

The New York cosmetics giant warned that it will lay off 5,800-to-7,000 employees and book charges between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion in an overhaul of its business. Actions under restructuring plan are expected to be substantially executed in fiscal 2025 and 2026 and completed in fiscal 2027. As of April 24, Estee Lauder had approved initiatives totaling cumulative charges of $623 million and a net reduction of over 2,600 positions.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Estee Lauder confirmed it will lay off up to 7,000 employees as the beauty-products maker logged a sharp decline in its fiscal third quarter due to ongoing weakness in the once-hot Asian market. "Estee Lauder 3Q Earnings Drop, Co to Lay Off 5,800-7000 Employees " at 6:50 a.m. ET, incorrectly reported the layoffs as a new development. The company previously divulged this plan in February.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 01, 2025 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT)

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