Drunk Elephant’s precarious situation shows no signs of abating in 2025, with parent company Shiseido’s recent Q3 update flagging continued lagging sales.
Uncertainty has plagued the future of the once-reigning skin care champion in the cutthroat modern beauty industry.
Despite the circumstances, Shiseido is not giving up on Drunk Elephant – and instead reiterated its turnaround plan for the brand in its latest financial update.
Some may call it foolishness, but the move inspires respect in an industry ready to discard any potential stragglers that could impact a brand owner's income.
This has been seen with the likes of L'Oréal passing off The Body Shop onto Natura & Co in 2017 over its lacklustre performance, while Unilever offloaded Kate Somerville to Rare Beauty Brands earlier this year for similar reasons.
More recently, luxury giant Kering called time on its beauty ambitions and offloaded its Beauté to L'Oréal in a staggering €4bn deal after failing to secure a strong enough foothold in the market.
Time and again, the industry has shown its aversion to risk – yet Shisiedo seems to have seen something in Drunk Elephant that makes it worth fighting for.
Will it be able to turn the embattled skin care business around?
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