Dive Brief:
- Glossier made a series of executive changes on Tuesday to better “position the brand for market opportunities” in 2023, including naming a chief commercial officer, chief marketing officer and chief creative director.
- Chitra Balireddi — who has experience from Chanel and the Boston Consulting Group — is joining the brand as chief commercial officer and will be responsible for all of Glossier’s distribution channels (the brand just entered its first wholesale partnership with Sephora).
- At the same time, Glossier promoted Marie Suter — who has been with the brand since 2018 — to chief creative director, and elevated former L'Oréal executive Kleo Mack to chief marketing officer.
Dive Insight:
Glossier is shoring up its executive team as it enters a new era of growth focused on both DTC and wholesale channels.
The beauty company made waves over the summer when it announced its first wholesale deal with retailer Sephora, which officially went live online and at 600 Sephora stores in the U.S. and Canada just last month. But changes in Glossier’s distribution model have also meant changes in Glossier’s employee base. The brand laid off about two dozen employees in August to prepare for a strategy that covered both wholesale and DTC, and also said it would be hiring close to 20 employees in roles across wholesale, product, supply chain and operations.
Now the retailer is also adjusting its executive team to match a new way of operating.
"Glossier is a generation-defining brand on year 9 of a 100-year trajectory," Kyle Leahy, CEO of Glossier, said in a statement on the recent changes. Leahy also noted the “immense impact” Mack and Suter have had on the customer experience. "I am also very excited that Chitra Balireddi is joining the team at this important juncture. Chitra brings the critical interplay of strategic and operational business skills necessary for Glossier's next chapter in the omnichannel environment."
Glossier said in the release that it expects 2023 to be a “transformational year,” but that will be on top of a series of business-altering years the brand has experienced since 2020. In addition to the recent layoffs and entry into wholesale, Glossier laid off 80 employees at the start of 2022 and swapped CEOs in May last year, as founder Emily Weiss stepped down.
The company also raised prices in 2022 as it contended with high shipping and production costs, and has stepped strongly back into brick and mortar after the pandemic forced the brand to shutter all of its stores. The company’s physical expansion began in 2021 and has included opening stores in a host of key cities, both in the U.S. and abroad.
