France
www.loreal.com
Sales: $33.4 billion

Key personnel
Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive officer; Nicolas Hieronimus, deputy chief executive officer; Laurent Attal, executive vice president, research and innovation; Christophe Babule, executive vice president, chief financial officer; Cyril Chapuy, president, L’Oréal Luxe; Vianney Derville, executive vice president, Western Europe Zone; Barbara Lavernos, executive vice president, chief technology and operations officer; Brigitte Liberman, president, active cosmetics; Fabrice Megarbane, president, L’Oréal China; Alexandra Palt, executive vice president, chief corporate responsibility officer and L’Oréal Foundation; Alexis Perakis-Valat, president, consumer products; Alexandre Popoff, executive vice president, Eastern Europe and Africa, Middle East Zones; Stéphane Rinderknech, president, North America; Lubomira Rochet, executive vice president, chief digital officer; Nathalie Roos, president, professional products; Frédéric Rozé, executive vice president, Americas Zone; Jochen Zaumseil, executive vice president, Asia Pacific Zone

Major Products
Hair care, skin care, sun care, color cosmetics, toiletries and fragrances sold under many brand names in different channels. Consumer: Garnier, L’Oréal Paris, Le Club des Créateurs, Maybelline, SoftSheen-Carson. Professional: L’Oréal Professional, Kerastase, Redken, Matrix, Mizano, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, Keraskin Esthetics. Luxury: Lancôme, Biotherm, Helena Rubenstein, Kiehl’s, Shu Uemura, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Cacharel, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel, YSL Beauté. Active Cosmetics: Vichy, LaRoche-Posay, SkinCeuticals, Sanoflore

New products
L’Oréal Paris: Age Perfect Cosmetics, L’Oréal Perso skin care. Garnier: Nutrisse Color Revivers, Fructis Treat shampoo and conditioner. Maybelline: Fast Dry polish, Fit Me! Matte+ Poreless Pouch. Redken: Flywheel shampoo, Color Extend Brownlights, Thickening Range (Redken Brews). Matrix: Dark Envy. Kiehl’s: Vital Skin-Strengthening Hyaluronic Acid Super Serum. Vichy: Normaderm Phytoaction Daily Deep Cleansing Gel, Aqualia Thermal UV Defense Moisturizer SPF 30, SkinConsult AI, LiftActiv Peptide-C. LaRoche-Posay: Adapalene acne treatment; SkinCeuticals: Smart TCA Peel. Acquisitions: Thayers Natural Remedies, Mugler and Azzaro fragrances

Comments: Once again, L’Oréal is the world’s largest player in the global beauty market, ahead of No. 2 Unilever by about $9 billion. Rounding out the top five are Estée Lauder, Procter & Gamble and Shiseido. Sales jumped nearly 11% last year and like-for-like growth was 8%. Even more impressive, like-for-like digital sales soared more than 52% to account for 16% of Group sales. By business segment, skin care and sun protection accounted for 35.0% of sales; makeup, 26.3%; hair care, 14.9%; hair coloring, 10.1%; fragrances, 9.3% and other, 4.4%. By division, consumer products accounted for 42.7% of sales, followed by L’Oréal Luxe, 36.9%; Professional Products, 11.5% and Active Cosmetics, 8.9%. By region, New Markets (Asia-Pacific (32.3%), Eastern Europe (6.4%), Latin America (6.0%) and Africa, Middle East (2.3%) accounted for 47% of sales; followed by Western Europe, 27.7% and North America, 25.3%.

The company said like-for-like (LFL) sales in North America rose 0.8% as weak makeup sales dragged down Consumer Products and L’Oréal Luxe, but both divisions benefitted from increased demand for RevitaLift Derm Intensives by L’Oréal Paris, Ultra Facial by Kiehl’s and Confidence by IT Cosmetics. Double-digit sales gains for CeraVe, La Roche-Posay and SkinCeuticals propelled Active Cosmetics division sales and Professional Products division sales increased on the strength of hair color, especially, Shades EQ and the overall hair care category. Sales in Western Europe rose 1.8% thanks to the successful launch of fragrances Libre by YSL and Idôle by Lancôme, the popularity of Giorgio Armani and Kiehl’s, and IT Cosmetics’ successful debut in several countries. Active Cosmetics’ sales benefitted from demand for La Roche-Posay, SkinCeuticals and CeraVe.

Latin American sales rose 2%, driven by gains in skin care, which has become the growth engine in the region. L’Oréal Luxe and Active Cosmetics divisions turned in strong performances, as did Mexico and Chile.

Africa, Middle East was the only zone to turn in a negative performance as sales fell 4.1%. L’Oréal said the zone was affected by Q4 downturns in the countries of the Levant, and Lebanon in particular. During the year, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco recorded double-digit growth.

Sales in Eastern Europe jumped 9% (LfL), led by gains in Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Romania, where consumers purchased skin care, makeup and hair care products. Ecommerce continued to grow strongly, and now represents 10% of sales in this zone.

According to Nicolas Hieronimus, deputy chief executive officer in charge of divisions, last year all L’Oréal divisions demonstrated tremendous ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world, especially in digital technology, distribution channel shifts and socially-conscious consumers. All well and good, but the successes of 2019 couldn’t prepare any company for COVID-19.

Q1 2020 sales fell 4.8%, but the company said sales in China rose 6.4% as business resumed. E-commerce sales rose 52.6% and represented nearly 20% of corporate sales by the end of the quarter.