Glossier is trying to rebound from a tumultuous period. The Gen Z-focused beauty brand revamped its executive ranks and is moving further beyond its direct-to-consumer roots.
The New York-based company is making several pushes to strengthen its business. Glossier is announcing product launches every four to six weeks, expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint to 600 Sephora stores. These moves are part of a plan for global expansion.
The beauty brand expects retail sales to reach $275 million in 2023, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Glossier ranks No. 570 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000. The database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by web sales.
Glossier’s growth slowed
The company experienced a shaky 2022. It cut more than a third of its workforce and founder Emily Weiss stepped down as chief executive officer. Online and in-store sales slowed down, according to Bloomberg Second Measure, which tracks anonymized U.S. consumer transactions.
To reignite growth, Kyle Leahy expanded Glossier’s distribution beyond exclusively online channels since taking the helm as CEO. Leahy is a veteran of Nike Inc., American Express and Cole Haan.
Glossier was valued at $1.8 billion in July 2021, the last time the business raised money from investors, per PitchBook.
Chitra Balireddi will be Glossier’s chief commercial officer, taking over Leahy’s previous job. With leadership experience at Chanel and the Boston Consulting Group, she is expected to help bolster in-store and wholesale operations.
“We’re bringing in Chitra to help scale and grow the brand for its next level of growth,” Leahy said in an interview with Bloomberg. She pledged expansion, not just on different platforms, “but across the globe.”
Kleo Mack, the new chief marketing officer, will extend Glossier’s reach beyond its existing consumers as it completes the roll-out of its Sephora partnership. She already expanded the brand’s awareness among U.S. women in the 18-to-34-year-old age range, an important demographic for the business, according to a company spokesperson.
Glossier is also promoting Marie Suter to chief creative director. Suter was behind the brand’s efforts to open its flagship store in SoHo and spent six years at Condé Nast as a creative director for Teen Vogue.
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