Estee Lauder Chops Shops

Estee Lauder Co. (New York), the purveyor of a wide range of cosmetics and beauty products (including EstŽe Lauder, Clinique, Aramis, M.A.C., Bobbi Brown and jane), has announced it will close 86 of the 170 Tommy Hilfiger fragrance vendor shops it operates in U.S. department stores, and will take a pre-tax charge of $60 million in the fourth quarter as a result of the closings.

Nonetheless, the company said it remains on track to meet its full-year earnings projections. And it said it will maintain efforts to expand its chain of more than 230 freestanding retail stores (primarily for its M.A.C, Origins and Aveda brands).

The company's upscale lines, sold in department stores, in company stores, and by specialty retailers, account for about half of all US prestige cosmetics sales.