• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, January 8, 2025

Ulta Beauty is the latest company to announce a CEO shake-up, with the surprising promotion of Kecia Steelman to president and CEO. Dave Kimbell, who joined Ulta as CMO 11 years ago and has been CEO since 2021, will retire.

At the same time, the company also announced that fourth-quarter sales will be somewhat better than initially forecast, coming in with a small gain. Ulta had previously predicted revenue would be between flat and a decline of 1%.

Steelman has been president and COO since 2023.

In the announcement, Lorna Nagler, chair of Ulta Beauty’s board of directors, described Steelman as a “world-class business executive with deep beauty and retail expertise, an unwavering commitment to effective execution, and a profound passion for our guests and associates.”

She added that Steelman has also been instrumental in the Bolingbrook, Illinois-based company’s recently “refreshed” strategic framework. “We are confident that she is the right person to lead Ulta Beauty forward,” Nagler said.

For much of the last decade, Ulta was consistently one of the best-performing brands in all of retail, with rapid expansion, constantly rising sales and steadily expanding digital, influencer and marketing efforts.

While beauty has been a resilient category, even with consumers cutting back discretionary spending, Ulta’s competition has intensified. Besides Sephora, Amazon has expanded its beauty offers, and both department stores, like Macy’s, and discounters, including Walmart, offer more beauty products. That’s led to a stock-price decline of almost 25% below Ulta's 52-week high.

Analysts view Steelman’s appointment as good -- if unexpected -- news for Ulta. “While Ulta significantly underperformed the market last year, today's updated outlook should help alleviate concerns about prolonged same-store sales declines,” writes Krisztina Katai, who follows the company for Deutsche Bank, and indicates that Ulta’s market share is stabilizing.

She notes that Steelman’s extensive real estate, CRM, distribution, and merchandising knowledge will help. “We see this as a positive transition for the company.”

David Swartz, an analyst who follows retail for Morningstar, agrees. “Although there was no prior indication that Kimbell was planning to move on,” he writes, “the change should be smooth. Kimbell was an effective CEO, but Ulta’s results over the past year have been rocky due partly to heightened competition in prestige beauty.”