PORTFOLIO COMPANY NEWS
Elana Drell-Szyfer Named CEO at Laura Geller Beauty
Elana Drell-Szyfer is headed back to beauty.
"I've been in beauty for 21 years," said Drell-Szyfer, "and when it's in your blood, you can't get it out."
The former executive vice president of global brand strategy at Kenneth Cole has been tapped as chief executive officer of Laura Geller Beauty. In addition, she will also become an operating adviser to Tengram Capital Partners for the beauty industry.
At Laura Geller, which she joined on June 30, Drell-Szyfer is continuing to expand the brand's presence in retail domestically and internationally. She will also continue the re-branding initiative that the Laura Geller team has been working on for the last 18 months.
At Tengram Capital Partners LLC, whose beauty portfolio includes Laura Geller Beauty, Nest Fragrances and Devacurl, Drell-Szyfer is on a mission to help grow the beauty business by recruiting executive talent and fine-tuning strategy. Richard Gersten, partner at Tengram, said the company hopes to tap into Drell-Szyfer's expertise "to think through and enhance our presence in an industry. That's very important to us."
Drell-Szyfer is already putting her knowledge to work. In October the company will begin to roll out packaging with a new logo and visuals.
"The story will stay the same and the core will stay the same," said Drell-Szyfer. "But the way we reach out and open our arms to the consumer from a story-telling point of view needs to be updated and evolved."
In terms of the logo, the text will be more open, while the signature red lip is now plumper in a hot pink shade called Happiful, a color that will be added to various products in current and upcoming collections. Also, categories on packaging like Spackle and Baked will be called out in a larger font.
For the launch, Laura Geller Beauty will introduce its look with social media, extensive education for in-store employees, merchandising and carton visuals.
To that end, Laura Geller launched at 55 retail locations of Beauty Brands in February and is in all 700 Ulta doors where the brand's counter space has been expanded from three to six feet. Drell-Szyfer would not discuss sales projections, but industry sources estimate Laura Geller Beauty's re-branded line of 400 stockkeeping units will generate $80 million to $100 million in first-year retail sales globally.