Natura Changes CEO: Carlucci Returns After a Decade

Natura has just made one of the most symbolic leadership changes in Brazilian retail. Alessandro Carlucci, who served as CEO of the company from 2004 to 2014, returns to the position following the departure of João Paulo Ferreira, who held the role for ten years. The transition is expected to take place at the end of September.

This move is not exactly a surprise for those closely following the company's governance. Carlucci had already returned to Natura's board in April last year and took on the role of chairman in March this year, replacing Fábio Barbosa, who moved to the advisory board alongside the trio of founders.

Ferreira, for his part, stated that he will dedicate himself to other projects, without detailing what they would be. The market's reading is that the change had been on the company's radar for months but depended on the alignment of various simultaneous factors.

What Motivated the Leadership Change at Natura

According to people close to the operation, the change had been planned, but the ideal timeline faced delays. The creation of the advisory board, the entry of Advent Fund as a significant shareholder with the right to appoint two board members, and the need to mature investments in systems and processes prevented everything from happening at once.

The departure of the founders from active management also weighed in. Natura is experiencing a generational transition in leadership, something that Brazilian family businesses frequently face. As we have discussed in analyses of corporate governance in Brazil, these transitions often define the next value cycle for listed companies.

Fábio Barbosa acknowledged that ideally, all changes would have been made at once, but that "the stars did not align at the right moment." This phrase aptly summarizes the complexity of reorganizing the top of a company that has undergone a radical transformation in recent years.

A Very Different Natura from the One Carlucci Left

When Carlucci left Natura in 2014 to move to the United States, the company was at the peak of its expansion phase. The acquisition of Aesop, The Body Shop, and Avon International was part of an ambitious thesis to become a global beauty group.

What followed was a painful digestion. The integration of the brands consumed capital, managerial energy, and focus. Avon International, in particular, was a bet that did not pay off. The Body Shop ended up being sold and entered judicial recovery in the UK. Aesop was sold to L'Oréal for $2.5 billion, a deal that brought financial relief but symbolized the abandonment of the conglomerate model.

Today, Natura is essentially what it has always been at its core: a Brazilian direct sales cosmetics company with a significant presence in Latin America. The simplification of the portfolio has been described internally as "brutal," and the numbers confirm this. The company is valued at R$ 12 billion on the stock exchange, with the stock accumulating a decline of 4.5% over the past twelve months. To put this in context, the Ibovespa rose about 9% in the same period, highlighting the stock's underperformance.

What is Carlucci's Plan for Natura Now

The new (and returning) CEO was clear in stating that the transition will be "without rupture." There will be no strategic pivot. The pillars remain the same as those already communicated to the market: strengthen existing brands, invest in communication and product innovation, expand the multichannel ecosystem, and accelerate the digitalization of direct sales.

Two points deserve special attention. The first is the improvement in service levels for consultants and end consumers. This is an operational issue that directly impacts the retention of the sales force, which is critical for direct sales companies. With the advancement of e-commerce and social networks as sales channels, maintaining the relevance of consultants requires heavy investment in technology and logistics.

The second point is the expansion in the Hispanic region. Natura already has operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, but these markets have never reached the scale the company projected. The Spanish-speaking Latin America represents the main avenue for organic growth for the company, especially now that the portfolio is concentrated.

Carlucci brings to the chair a rare experience: he knows Natura's culture from the inside (he joined the company in 1989), has led the company for a decade, and has spent the last few years exposed to other governance environments. He was a board member of Lojas Renner and chairman of Azzas2154 for seven years, two companies with high management standards.

What Investors Should Watch Going Forward

The investment thesis in Natura today is fundamentally different from what it was five years ago. It is no longer a global beauty conglomerate. It is a bet on the operational execution of a simplified company, with strong brands in Brazil and growth potential in Latin America.

The market will evaluate Carlucci based on practical metrics: evolution of EBITDA margin, revenue growth in the Hispanic region, productivity per consultant, and free cash flow generation. The era of large acquisitions is over. What matters now is efficiency.

As we discussed in analyses of the listed Brazilian retail sector, companies undergoing cycles of simplification often have a window for market re-evaluation when they prove that the new structure consistently generates value. Natura is at this inflection point.

With a market value of R$ 12 billion and a CEO promising continuity without rupture, the company bets that operational discipline will achieve what acquisitions could not: deliver sustainable returns to shareholders. The next two or three quarters will tell if the market will buy into this narrative.

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