L'Oréal sales rise with double-digit growth in Europe
L'Oréal has reported a 7.5% increase in like-for-like sales to £18.6 billion (€22.12 billion) for the first six months of 2024, with growth across all divisions led by dermatological beauty and consumer products.
The company saw double-digit growth in Europe during the first half, with sales up 11.1% to £6 billion (€7.2 billion). Each of the categories also advanced in double digits in Europe.
The divisions
The professional products division delivered overall growth of 5.7%, continuing to expand through its omnichannel strategy with "strong" acceleration in e-commerce and selective distribution.
In the haircare market, growth was fuelled by new product launches from Kérastase, L’Oréal Professionnel and Redken.
In the second half of the year, the division aims to further capitalise on the market for hair devices with the debut of L’Oréal Professionnel's AirLight Pro, reinforcing its commitment to bringing innovation to the professional haircare industry.
The consumer products division saw sales rise 8.9%, reflecting the division’s democratisation and premiumisation strategy, combining price and mix while maintaining positive volumes.
As part of this, all categories remained "dynamic" and all major brands advanced "strongly", with a "remarkable" performance from L’Oréal Paris alongside growth from NYX Professional Makeup, Maybelline New York and Garnier in the first half.
L’Oréal Luxe posted growth of 2.3%, with fragrance, once again, the most dynamic category thanks to couture brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Maison Margiela and Prada. Acquired by L’Oréal last year, Aesop also pursued its expansion plan.
The dermatological beauty division then achieved the best growth at 16.4%, reflecting double-digit growth across all regions.
Premium skincare brand La Roche-Posay remained the number one growth contributor to the division, fuelled by the success of its MelaB3 innovation. CeraVe also continued to grow "strongly" in the first half, while Vichy maintained its double-digit pace.
Nicolas Hieronimus, Chief Executive Officer at L'Oréal Group, said: "In the first half, we delivered strong growth of 7.3%, well-balanced between value and volume and strengthened our global leadership in a beauty market that remains dynamic.
"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.
"The combination of our powerful R&I and unique marketing creativity allowed us to offer consumers groundbreaking innovations. The consistent increase of our A&P spend to support these innovations and our 37 international brands allowed us to, once again, outpace the global beauty market.
"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."
