 | | |  | Andrea
Jung
Chairman, Avon Products
By
Sally Beatty
When Andrea Jung was named chief executive of Avon Products Inc. in 1999, she was a 41-year-old rising star who had never run a world-wide corporation. A month before her appointment, the world's leading direct seller of beauty products warned it would miss its quarterly earnings target.
Fast
forward to 2004. In February, Coca-Cola Co. directors were reported to have expressed interest in tapping Ms. Jung to lead the global beverage giant. Avon says Ms. Jung, who became Avon's chairman in 2001, "remains fully committed to leading Avon's long-term growth strategies."
Since
moving into the CEO suite five years ago, the tall, glamorous Ms. Jung -- known for her signature three-strand pearl necklace and no-nonsense style -- has impressed Wall Street with her strategic and marketing know-how. She has modernized Avon's image, boosted morale, restructured operations and upgraded products and packaging.
She
has also increased the number of sales representatives to more than 4.4 million world-wide from about three million in 1999. And the company recently reported an 11% jump in third-quarter sales, fueled by robust gains in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America and a 15% jump in sales of beauty products. The number of Avon's active sales representatives grew 11% in the quarter from a year earlier.
Born
in Toronto, Ms. Jung graduated from Princeton with a degree in English. She became a top merchant at upscale retailer I. Magnin, and later joined Neiman Marcus, where she oversaw cosmetics, accessories and intimate apparel.
At
Avon, Ms. Jung, a fluent speaker of Mandarin, has overseen the opening of thousands of stores in China, making it one of the company's top 10 markets, and Avon recently received verbal permission to begin testing door-to-door sales there as well. When she does take a moment to relax, Ms. Jung, who has two children, says she enjoys playing classical piano and reading 20th-century literature.
One
of her biggest challenges at Avon is the U.S. market, the company's largest, where its growth has been weaker than expected. Avon's U.S. sales fell 1% in the third quarter due to weak consumer response to a new color makeup promotion and poor sales of children's apparel and toys. Avon also said it expects U.S. sales to decline 3% in the fourth quarter, which it blamed on a "weaker than expected consumer environment."
Avon's
stock price, which had nearly tripled since 1999, recently slipped from its 52-week high of $46.65 to around $37, reflecting the company's recent weak U.S. performance and outlook.
Ms.
Jung remains optimistic. Avon's third quarter net income grew 33%, and Avon recently raised its full-year outlook. For the year, Avon expects earnings to climb "at least" 26%.
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