French cosmetic giant L’Oréal announced a double-digit uptick in total revenues for the year 2022, coinciding with strong fourth-quarter growth, up 13.5 percent for the three months ending December 31.
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The Paris-based company said annual sales reach EUR 38.26 billion (USD 41.08 billion), up 18.5 percent, and up 10.9 percent like-for-like.
In 2022, L’Oréal North Asia’s zone rose 6.6 percent like-for-like and surged 14.8 percent based on reported figures. L’Oréal said its brand portfolio and digital excellence were once again key drivers throughout the zone, in all markets and all channels.
The company’s professional products and active cosmetics divisions continued their double-digit growth, leveraging their premium brand portfolio, while the consumer products division capitalised on L’Oréal Paris’ notable success in the skincare and haircare categories, and on 3CE Stylenanda growth momentum.
L’Oréal luxe achieved robust growth in a “negative market,” driven by premium skincare, fragrance and the strong acceleration of Yves Saint Laurent across the zone.
In Mainland China, the beauty market was “affected” by the public health restrictions. In this challenging context, L’Oréal said it grew “appreciably,” with a double-digit increase in online sales, added the company.
The region also witnessed strong offline and online market share gains throughout the year, as well as during Double 11 with L’Oréal brands topping the rankings for each beauty category on Tmall, further consolidating the group’s leadership, notably in luxury, where L’Oréal surpassed 30% of market share in 2022.
L’Oréal also recorded double-digit growth in Japan and Korea, where it outperformed the beauty market, which bounced back strongly in 2022.
Likewise, in the SAPMENA (South Asia-Pacific and the Middle East/North Africa Zone) region, the group achieved “solid growth” across all markets despite sourcing challenges.
The company said its SAPMENA consumers returned to stores during the year, which lead to booming sales in the brick-and-mortar channel.
In the Pacific, growth was mainly driven by the fragrance and skincare categories, notably with the expansion of La Roche Posay and CeraVe. Maybelline New York makeup and Garnier skincare both fuelled progression across Southeast Asia. India witnessed “spectacular” growth, spurred by its professional products division and the consumer products division across all categories.
“We achieved a remarkable performance this year, thanks to our innovation leadership, our highly desirable brands, our operational agility and the tremendous commitment of our teams. Comparable growth vs. 2019 accelerated quarter after quarter increased 23% over the full year,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal.
“Our balanced growth across Divisions and regions once again demonstrates the relevance of our multipolar model: strategically centralised and operationally decentralised with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, this model is ideally suited to the current environment. We have emerged stronger from 2022 and reinforced our position as the world’s leading beauty company. These high-quality results allow us to consistently support our social and environmental commitments, in line with our dual ambition of economic and corporate performance.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said he is “mindful of the current uncertainties,” but remains “ambitious for the future, optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market, and confident in our ability to keep outperforming the market and achieve in 2023 another year of growth in sales and profits.”