Avon Products Executive Chairwoman Andrea Jung to step down

Avon Products Inc.’s Andrea Jung, the face of the door-to-door cosmetics seller for 13 years, will step down as executive chairwoman after a tenure that encompassed slumping earnings, a foreign-bribery investigation and a takeover attempt.

Jung, 54, who was chief executive from 1999 until April, will leave at the end of the year and continue as a senior advisor to the board beginning Jan. 1, New York-based Avon said Friday in a statement. Fred Hassan, a lead independent director, will succeed her and become non-executive chairman.

The departure marks the end of an era for Avon, which appointed Jung as its first female chief executive. The elegant Jung, leading a largely female sales representative force, touted the cosmetics giant as “the company for women.” Jung’s background was in marketing, not operations, which became a liability once the company began to struggle and grapple with an overseas bribery probe.

“Given the sour taste that the last several quarters of her tenure left in some people’s mouths, I’d view this as a positive for the stock overall,” said Rommel Dionisio, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in New York.

Avon shares rose $1.17, or 7.2%, the most since May 9, to $17.39. The shares have dropped 0.5% this year.

Avon said in December that Jung would relinquish the CEO position and be replaced by Sherilyn McCoy. The company has posted three straight years of declining profit, and in August McCoy said Avon was working to cut costs, re-evaluate the company’s markets and work to boost incentives for top sales representatives.

The company rebuffed a takeover offer from Coty Inc. earlier this year. Coty, the maker of perfumes by Beyonce Knowles and Heidi Klum, withdrew its sweetened $10.7-billion bid for Avon on May 14, citing delays by Avon and unwillingness to engage in negotiations.