Ulta Beauty Case Study

The cosmetic line Ulta Beauty is not only a part of The MAC family company, but is a major figure in the cosmetic industry. It started in 1990 as Ulta3 Inc, then it later became Ulta3 The Cosmetic Savings Store, Inc On Feb. 7, 1992. The name changed to Ulta3 Cosmetics & Salon, Inc. on July 12, 1995. The name finally changed to Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. on July 29, 1999. The company started in 1990, before major competitors like Sephora and LUSH were in the cosmetic business. The main brands were Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder, which were basic drugstore brand makeup so this was a time where companies were trying to start selling beauty products as its own product. The founders, Terry Hanson and Dick George, saw this opportunity for women to
Employees even went from twenty to eight hundred and one of the founders, Dick George, left to start a new company. This left the company with Terry Hanson as the new CEO. By 1997 the company reaches a high with sales at seventy-eight million dollars, but challenges arise in the beauty industry as they are up against a new Louie Vuitton-owned beauty called Sephora. Sephora was launched in America and began to rapidly grow. To compete with this company, Ulta3 rebrand in 1999 with new CEO, Lyn Kirby and she decided to drop the “3” in the name so the company would just be Ulta. For the next couple of years, Ulta new mission was ‘"Ulta today is positioned as a retailer offering affordable indulgence rather than discount prices.” Up until 2003, Lyn Kirby moved Ulta away from it’s drugstore image and rebranded the company as a high-end makeup cosmetic line. This new image helped Ulta open up one hundred fifty more stores and make twenty percent more profit, which ultimately brought in four hundred and thirty-four million dollars for 2003. Continuing to grow in 2005, Utla continued to get more upscale fragrances and