Nykaa sees six senior-level exits since April: Report

Beauty and fashion company Nykaa saw the exit of six key top-level executives since April, including Chief Marketing Officer Shalini Raghavan, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

CEO Falguni Nayar will now oversee the firm's marketing function given its criticality, the report said. The development comes at a time when the online beauty sector is witnessing slow growth and fierce competition.

Others who quit are Kingshuk Basu, Senior VP of retail; Sumant Kasliwal, Senior VP of the fashion unit; Aditya Sandhu from the B2B sales unit; Sachin Kataria, VP of the ecommerce business; and Shantanu Prakash, VP of marketing and communications.

"As Nykaa evolves into a multi-dimensional, multi-geographic business, leadership roles are being augmented with an eye on strategic realignment, cost rationalisation and growing complexity of the business," a Nykaa spokesperson told YourStory in response to queries.

The company said it has elevated Shailendra Singh as its Business Head for Physical Retail-Beauty, while he continues to also lead key omnichannel initiatives. It has also hired a new leader to drive growth in Nykaa Fashion's western-wear brands.

"We're excited to bring a strategic leader in Rozita Nouruzi as the CEO of Nykaa, our omnichannel beauty business, in partnership with the Apparel Group in the GCC. She brings extensive experience in speciality beauty retail, having headed Sephora in the KSA and will report directly to the board of the JV, having assumed her role on June 21, 2023," the statement added.

India's beauty ecommerce space is highly cluttered and dominated by players, including Tata Cliq Palette, Sephora, SS Beauty by Shoppers' Stop, Purplle, MyGlamm, and Myntra, among others. 

Reliance Retail also launched an online beauty platform called Tira in February, dedicated to luxury beauty positioning itself as a direct competitor to Nykaa Luxe in the segment.

Earlier in March, five top executives, including Manoj Gandhi (Chief Commercial Operations Officer), Vikas Gupta (CEO of wholesale business), and Gopal Asthana (CBO of the fashion division) left the company, reportedly as part of the ecommerce firm's standard appraisal and transition process.

FSN E-commerce Ventures, the parent company of Nykaa, is set to reveal its Q1 FY24 performance on August 11, according to a filing.

Last month, the company told the stock exchanges that revenue in the April to June quarter is expected to grow in the mid-twenties backed by strong urban demand in the beauty and personal care (BPC) segment. However, the fashion business has seen only a "gradual improvement in order volume with sustained average order value YoY owing to lower discretionary spending, especially in small towns."

In Q4 FY23, Nykaa's net profit plunged 71% with category changes in its highest contributing beauty and personal care business and higher festive discounts, among other significant expenses, squeezing margins.

"Margins were affected by lower consumer discretionary spending," MD and CEO Nayar said in a post-earnings call, adding that Nykaa aims to add 50 offline stores next year.