Estée Lauder Companies withdraws guidance due to COVID-19

Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has withdrawn its previous financial guidance due to the escalation of COVID-19.

On March 18, ELC president and ceo Fabrizio Freda said: “Our guidance on February 6, 2020 for the fiscal 2020 second half and full year ending June 30, 2020 reflected the best information available to us at the time, as well as our best estimates about the pace of recovery of our then-impacted businesses. However, most retail stores in North America and Europe are now closing, and our global business is more broadly impacted by COVID-19 than we initially expected. As a result, we are withdrawing our previous guidance that we no longer expect to meet. We expect to provide an update regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on our business and our recovery plans when we report our next earnings scheduled for May 1, 2020.”

The company revised its 2020 guidance when it announced its second-quarter results on February 6.  It said then that for the second half, net sales were forecast to increase between 0% and 1%, as a result of the virus outbreak, which at the time had mainly impacted China and travel retail.