Věra Komárová leaves Dermacol after 24 years amid dispute with owner

Věra Komárová, who has shaped the face of the cosmetics brand Dermacol for more than twenty years, is leaving her post as marketing director. Her dismissal coincides with a conflict with her husband Vladimír Komár, the company’s sole ultimate owner, and the two sides explain it differently.

Komárová informed employees of her departure in an email on Tuesday, 20 October. About 500 people received it, including production workers. She says the official reason is organisational changes, but she links the decision to personal and property disagreements with her husband. A few days earlier, she claims, she had offered him a property settlement agreement in an attempt to separate family matters from the shared business.

Speaking to e15, Komár confirmed that he had decided to part ways with Komárová but denied any connection to the property dispute. He cites the need for change in how marketing is managed and more efficient use of the company’s money, and intends to resolve the ownership dispute separately from the business.

Komárová has largely shaped Dermacol’s image over the past two decades: she was responsible not only for marketing strategy but also for product development and expansion into foreign markets. Vladimír Komár bought the company in 2003, when it needed a fresh impetus, and Komárová became one of the key figures in its growth. Dermacol gradually moved beyond the Czech and Slovak markets into other European countries, the Middle East and Asia. An important part of the strategy was building on the brand’s history and its best-known product, a foundation with strong coverage created in 1966 in the film studios at Barrandov.

Despite leaving her executive post, Komárová remains a member of the company’s supervisory board, according to the commercial register.