PARIS — Masahiko Uotani, chairman and chief executive officer of Shiseido Co. Ltd., will retire at year-end, according to the company.
Kentaro Fujiwara will succeed him in the position.
“Effective January 1, 2025, Masahiko Uotani will act as senior adviser for the Shiseido Group and, upon request by the management team, provide advice, support talent development, engage in external relations, etc.,” Shiseido said in a press release Tuesday.
The group said Uotani will be retiring as a director of Shiseido after the ordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for the end of March.
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Since 2019, the group has been unfurling a five-year CEO succession plan. On Nov. 10, 2022, Fujiwara was named as a CEO candidate and company president and chief operating officer. At the time, Shiseido outlined that Uotani would retire from his role in December 2024.
Since the handover has been proceeding smoothly, Shiseido’s board of directors adopted the resolution of succession on Tuesday, the company said.
When Uotani was appointed president and CEO of Shiseido in 2014, he was the first person from outside the company to ever be named to the role. His mission was clear: To transform the group into a truly global enterprise, and he brought with him decades of experience at international companies, most notably Coca-Cola.
Uotani’s achievements include strategically diversifying Shiseido, both in terms of talents and key brands, rejuvenating the corporate culture worldwide and driving growth in key Eastern and Western markets.
However, he is leaving and Fujiwara will be stepping into the CEO-ship as the beauty market shape-shifts like never before. Japanese beauty companies had in the recent past leaned heavily into China, with great success. But these days, the Chinese are increasingly shopping brands birthed on their domestic soil, so a new strategy is in order.
Shiseido stock has been struggling, down 24.3 percent over the past 12 months, due primarily to weak earnings in China.
In the first quarter of this year, Shiseido registered a net loss of 3.29 billion Japanese yen, or $21.2 million, versus a 3.09 billion yen profit in the first quarter of 2023. Sales at the company in the three months ended March 31 gained 3.9 percent to 249.5 billion yen, meanwhile.
In WWD Beauty Inc’s most recent Top 100 listing of beauty manufacturers, based on 2023 sales, Shiseido ranked eighth.