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On Thursday February 8, L’Or\u00e9al published annual results that reflected the global beauty market: particularly buoyant. The world’s number one beauty company saw net profit grow by 8.4% and sales by 7.6%.<\/p>\n
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The L’Or\u00e9al Luxe division is now the world leader in luxury beauty sales, ahead of American giant Est\u00e9e Lauder.<\/p>\n
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The only fly in the ointment is that the leader in perfumes and cosmetics recorded a fourth quarter 2023 performance below analysts’ expectations, due to a North Asian market weighed down by “a sluggish Chinese beauty market”.<\/p>\n
The world’s number one beauty company posted net profit growth of 8.4% “despite persistent inflationary and geopolitical tensions<\/strong>“, says the press release.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For its financial year ending December 31, 2023, the l’Or\u00e9al group posted sales of 41.18 billion euros, up 7.6%<\/strong> on a reported basis and 11% on a comparable basis. Group Chairman Nicolas Hieronimus<\/strong> hailed “a third year of double-digit growth<\/strong>“. He added, “Not only have we strengthened our position as the world’s number 1 beauty company, but we have also passed the 40 billion euro sales mark for the first time in our history.” However, sales “came in below analysts’ expectations<\/strong>, and fourth-quarter sales were slower<\/strong> (+2.8%) than in the previous quarter”, points out Antoine Fraysse-Soulier, Head of Market Analysis at Etoro.<\/p>\n “If we exclude 2021, which is the year of the post-Covid rebound, which is a little atypical, it’s our best comparable growth for 20 years (+11%), and this at a time when the world is not the friendliest,” L’Or\u00e9al CEO Nicolas Hieronimus told AFP.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finally, the company’s profitability improved last year, with an operating margin of 19.8%<\/strong>, against 19.5% in 2022.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Its CEO is particularly confident for 2024<\/strong>, considering that “in times of uncertainty, people want to have pleasant experiences and feel good about themselves – and beauty enables them to do this”. A phenomenon he has dubbed the “dopamine effect” of beauty. The CEO predicts further growth in sales and profits over the next financial year.<\/strong><\/p>\n In particular, the Group can rely on its investments in beauty tech and biotechnology<\/strong>. In addition to the December acquisition of Lactobio, a leader in probiotic and microbiome research, the Group announced in January the signature of an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Gjosa<\/strong>, a Swiss company pioneering the development of water micronization technology, as well as two minority stakes via its BOLD venture capital fund. These transactions involved Timeline<\/strong>, a Swiss biotechnology company developing innovative longevity solutions in the food, beauty and health sectors, and the Chinese luxury perfume brand To Summer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The 37-brand group has been identified as a key player on the beauty tech scene<\/strong>. Nicolas Hieronimus and Barbara Lavernos were invited to present the Opening Keynote at CES in Las Vegas.<\/strong> L’Or\u00e9al became the first beauty company to be invited, and won a record seven Innovation Awards at CES.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t\tLuxury, hair care and dermatological beauty on top<\/h2>\n\n<\/p>\n