Ulta Hunts For New CMO

 

Exec changes keep coming at Ulta, with Michelle Crossan-Matos, CMO and chief ecommerce officer, departing after two years. The news comes just weeks after an unexpected change in the CEO seat, with Kecia Steelman rising to CEO from president, replacing Dave Kimball, who announced his retirement.

An Ulta Beauty spokesperson tells Marketing Daily via email that the company is initiating a search for a new CMO, which it intends to fill quickly.

Kelly Mahoney, senior vice president of customer and growth marketing, will head the marketing organization as interim CMO.

“We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead the team during this transition,” the spokesperson said.

Crossan-Matos broke the news in a LinkedIn post. “After a few awesome years at Ulta Beauty, the time has come to leave and take on a new challenge,” she wrote. “As many of you know, coming back home to Beauty was special for me. I am humbled and feel privileged that I was able to work with the most amazing thought leaders, brand partners and founders so we could harness the power of beauty as a force for good.”

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She led the launch last year of “The Joy Project,” the company’s sweeping new brand platform.

Before joining Ulta, she had been the CMO of Samsung’s American operations.

While Ulta has consistently been one of the most successful retailers in the U.S., it has struggled in recent years. In the most recent quarterly results, net sales rose 1.7% to $2.53 billion compared to $2.49 billion, but most of those gains were from new store openings. On a comparable sales basis, which includes stores open for at least 14 months and e-commerce sales, sales managed an anemic 0.6% gain.

Observers say the company’s adjustments to changing consumer demand are likely to be effective. While the beauty retail landscape will continue to be competitive, Ulta benefits on the strength of the company’s retail brand and robust relationships with leading and up-and-coming beauty companies.

When Ulta announced the CEO switch in early January, the company  also raised the fourth-quarter outlook “after a stronger holiday period than originally anticipated,” writes David Swartz, an analyst who follows the retail industry for Morningstar. “Ulta now expects a small comparable sales increase (versus prior guidance for a low-single-digit decline.) These are not great fourth-quarter results by Ulta’s historical standards, but they do provide some confidence that the firm is adapting to market conditions.”

Ulta is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results in March.

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