French cosmetics giant L’Oreal missed third-quarter sales expectations and said on Thursday that demand for its luxury products had suffered a slowdown in Hong Kong and at airports.
The maker of Lancome and Armani perfume saw its sales rise 3.7 percent like-for-like in the quarter to Sept. 30 to EUR5.938 billion (USD6.51 billion), falling short of the market consensus of 4.3 percent.
"It was very precisely Chinese consumers outside China and it was generally Hong Kong and travel retail," that suffered the most, L’Oreal Chief Executive Jean-Paul Agon told a conference call on the sales. Agon said sales growth at the group’s travel retail outlets dropped to 1 percent in the third quarter, down from previous double-digit levels and sales trends turned negative for luxury products in Asia.
(Source: CNBC)