Greater China managing director leaves

Maggie Chan, Sephora’s managing director Greater China since November 2018, has stepped down from her role at the LVMH-owned selective perfumery chain. She is now working at the Avent Capital investment fund.

Asked by FashionNetwork.com to comment on Chan’s departure, Sephora has not yet replied. In July 2023, Bloomberg, citing a source close to the matter, reported that Sephora was envisaging an overhaul in its top hierarchy in China, and was considering putting a new executive in charge of its business in the country.

The reason given was fierce competition by Sephora’s local rivals, which was slowing down the perfumery chain’s growth. As a result, Sephora’s top management is said to be mulling the appointment of a new country manager, to oversee the chain’s next expansion phase in China.

Last October, speaking at the re-opening of Sephora’s Champs-Elysées flagship in Paris, CEO Guillaume Motte said that “our second priority region [after the USA] is China (…) We have the capacity to open many more stores in China, where we’re only present in 90 cities. Some of our competitors are already established in 150, 190 cities.”

Sephora currently operates some 350 stores in China, virtually as many as it does in France, and “this is an inconsistency. [China] is a huge land of opportunity,” Motte had added.

Sephora is present in 35 countries and, according to industry specialists, it generated a revenue of €12 billion in 2022. The chain is aiming to top the €20 billion mark, at an unspecified future date.