L’Oréal said its strong growth figures display a clear outperformance of the current international beauty market.

L’Oréal Group (L’Oréal) has posted its H124 financial results, which show a like-for-like growth in sales of 7.3%, amounting to €22.12bn, as net profit for H124 increased 8.8% to €3.65bn.

Regionally, South Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SAPMENA-SSA) saw the strongest growth at 15.2% (€1.88bn) followed closely by Latin America at 14.2% (1.68bn) and Europe at 11.1% (€7.2bn).

L’Oréal did note however that operating conditions in North Asia, specifically China, remained a challenge, with growth down by 1.7% (€5.4bn). North America held steady at 7.8% growth ($5.79bn).

The key growth countries within SAPMENA-SSA were the Australia-New Zealand cluster, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and India, where volume and value were (relatively) balanced in their contribution, as was the case in Latin America.

Commenting on these figures, Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal, said: “Our continued strong momentum in emerging markets, Europe and North America allowed us to more than offset the depressed beauty market in mainland China and the unfavourable comparative in Travel Retail.

In this context, I am particularly pleased to see the acceleration of L’Oréal Luxe, the dynamism of Consumer Products and the continued share gains of Dermatological Beauty and Professional Products.”

Travel retail

Within travel retail, the standout division was Luxe, which grew 2.3% like-for-like to €7.57bn, surpassed in monetary yield only by the Consumer Products division, which grew 8.9% (€8.32bn) like-for-like.

In a statement, L’Oréal said: “L’Oréal Luxe outperformed the luxury beauty market across these three regions. In mainland China, the Division continued to gain share in a negative market; Travel Retail in North Asia, meanwhile, saw first signs of improvement. Japan remained very dynamic.”

It also noted fragrance as its most dynamic category within the division, and highlighted the continued expansion of Aesop, alongside the rebound of its makeup assortment.

The standout division in terms of pure growth was, undoubtedly, Dermatological Beauty, which grew 16.4% (€3.79bn).

“The Division maintained its strong momentum, growing significantly faster than the dermo-cosmetics market, which remains dynamic despite the slowdown in the US,” said L’Oréal, noting double-digit growth in North Asia, and significant inroads into mainland China as cause for celebration.

“In an environment that continues to be marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, we remain optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market and confident that our innovation power and the robustness of our multi-polar model will allow us to keep outperforming it and to achieve another year of growth in sales and profit,” added Hieronimus.

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