American lifestyle and accessories brand Cole Haan announced on Thursday the opening of its third New York City location.
Located at the corner of 5th Avenue and 19th Street in the historic Flatiron District, the 1,622-square-foot store offers an immersive shopping experience for customers to explore Cole Haan’s diverse collections across lifestyle, sport, and dress categories.
Housed within a 1904 neo-Renaissance landmark building, the new store boasts floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the space in natural light. Design elements, including herringbone wood flooring, mosaic tiles, aged iron chandeliers, and custom-built shelving, create an inviting atmosphere that bridges the brand’s heritage with its forward-thinking approach. Completing the space is artwork throughout the store including macro photography of the iconic Flatiron Building.
“New York has long been a key and successful market for Cole Haan, and we’re excited to open a new store in this vibrant city in the iconic Flatiron District,” said Jack Boys, CEO of Cole Haan.
“This next step in our brand and retail journey offers a unique opportunity to engage with both long-time and new customers allowing us to share our most innovative products and classic designs in one of the world’s most inspiring neighborhoods.”
The store opens with Cole Haan’s Spring 2025 collection. Customers will find new products in Men’s including the OriginalGrand Energyweave Oxfords, alongside best-selling styles. In women’s, new styles include the Georgie Ballet and Graclyn MaryJane Ballet Flats, as well as the Carolyn Foldover Tote in the handbag category.
Cole Haan currently operates over 500 stores in nearly 100 countries worldwide.
Spanish fashion and fragrance company Puig reported a 14.3% rise in fourth-quarter sales on Thursday, beating analyst expectations for the key holiday period.
The Barcelona-based company behind perfume brands Rabanne, Carolina Herrera and Jean Paul Gaultier said net sales for the three months to Dec. 31 were 1.36 billion euros ($1.42 billion), above the 1.30 billion euro average forecast from analysts polled by LSEG.
Puig, which generates most of its revenue from fragrance sales, is heavily reliant on the holiday season, with analysts estimating that nearly half of its prestige perfumes are sold in the quarter that includes Black Friday and Christmas.
The company, which also owns luxury skincare and make-up brands Byredo and Charlotte Tilbury, said full-year sales reached 4.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion), up 11% from 2023, surpassing its goal of increasing sales faster than the 6-7% forecast for the global premium beauty market.
The average of analyst estimates was for sales of 4.72 billion euros in 2024, given that it is less exposed to sluggish demand in China and that more than half of Puig’s revenue comes from Europe, the Middle East and Africa while 18% comes from the United States.
The 2024 performance of larger rivals such as Estee Lauder and L’Oreal was hampered by muted demand from China, where a property crisis and high youth unemployment have curbed consumer spending.
Puig said sales in its core fragrance and fashion business grew by 21% in the holiday quarter.
Sales in the make-up division fell 7.2%, with its Charlotte Tilbury brand affected by a voluntary withdrawal of select batches of Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray in December over what Puig described as “an isolated quality issue in a limited number of batches” detected during routine product testing.
UK-based circular economy specialist Reconomy has named long-term Amazon fashion business exec Rakhshan Zahid as chief executive of its Re-use loop, effective immediately.
She will lead the division, made up of Advanced Supply Chain and ReBound, which offers “intelligent platforms and circular logistics through technology-led supply chain, logistics and fulfilment solutions”.
With a career spanning e-commerce and financial services, Zahid “brings extensive expertise in driving strategic growth, operational excellence and innovation”, Reconomy said, adding: “Her passion for fostering inclusive and collaborative workplaces aligns well with Reconomy’s values”.
Over 10 years at Amazon, she’s held leadership roles in fashion and marketplace businesses, most recently leading the fashion accessories business across Europe.
She succeeds Claire Webb who will continue in the business throughout this transition as executive chair, having been CEO and MD of Advanced Supply Chain for five years, leading the business through its acquisition by Reconomy in 2021.
Since her appointment as Re-use executive chair, Webb “has played a crucial role in the growth and success of Reconomy’s Re-use loop, including bringing together the leadership teams of ReBound and Advanced Supply Chain to facilitate closer collaboration, realise operational synergies and establish a market-leading global end-to-end returns offer”. She also led the business to open a facility in Nettetal, Germany to become a European superhub for returns and established the business’ Retail Ready service in Europe.
The Re-use businesses have also collaborated across Reconomy to develop its textile EPR solution to help brands and retailers comply with emerging regulations being introduced internationally. Webb now plans to pursue non-executive board-level opportunities.
Guy Wakeley, chief executive at Reconomy, said: “[Our] Re-use loop is one of our key divisions and counts many of the most successful, fast-growing retailers and e-commerce brands as customers. Rakhshan… brings an impressive track record and considerable experience of significantly scaling retail businesses, which will prove invaluable as we embark on the next phase of growth for Re-use.
Jelle Schoenmaker continues as MD of ReBound and Ben Balfour continues to lead Advanced Supply Chain, also as MD.
Specialist media platform Future has promoted long-time exec Kevin Li Ying chief executive officer. He takes up the post and his place on the board on 31 March to lead the group whose titles include shopping platform Who What Wear and digital fashion magazine Marie Claire.
Current CEO Jon Steinberg will step down on 30 March and will act as senior advisor until 30 June “to ensure a smooth transition”.
Currently EVP of B2C, the group’s largest division, Li Ying’s been with Future for over 20 years becoming a “key contributor to the successful transformation of the company from a traditional print publisher into a leading global digital media platform of today”, the company said.
In his current role he’s had full responsibility for all B2C brands, editorial and revenue generation consisting of commercial advertising, e-commerce, subscriptions and newstrade revenue “while ensuring technology and data are central to the B2C offer”.
Prior to this, he was chief technology officer, a position he held for eight years.
Chair Richard Huntingford said: “Kevin is a strong visionary leader with an unmatched knowledge of the Group, from its tech stack to its revenue streams.”
Li Ying added: “I look forward to continue to execute on the strategy, and am excited about our growth opportunities, building on our track record of innovation and producing excellent content and products to attract valuable audiences through a platform-agnostic approach.”