L’Oréal fired on all cylinders in 2021, growing at twice the pace of the overall global cosmetic market. All geographic zones, business divisions and product categories contributed to the outstanding result to achieve double digit growth of 15.3 per cent to US$36.8 billion.
L’Oréal Luxe was the star performer with sales rising 21.9 per cent to become the multinational’s largest division by value. Revenues were a hair’s breadth away from pre-Covid levels with sales of US$14.01 billion, fueled by the success of hero fragrances such as Libre by YSL Beauty and new releases including Alien Goddess by Thierry Mugler and Luna Rossa Ocean by Prada. Lancôme and Kiehl’s were strong performers in the skincare category and Shu Uemura benefited from the pick-up in makeup revenues.
The Consumer Products division, including Maybelline, Garnier and L’Oréal Paris, was L’Oréal’s largest division by volume with sales reaching US$13.884 billion. L’Oréal Paris kept its grip on the title of world’s number one beauty brand with sales of US$7.94 billion. NYX Professional also posted exceptional results.
The multinational’s Active Cosmetics division (La Roche-Posay, SkinCeuticals, CeraVe and Vichy) continued its booming success of the past four years, outpacing the general dermocosmetic market with sales of US$4.45 billion – up 30.1 per cent for the calendar year. La Roche-Posay doubled its growth for 2021 on the back of products such as Effaclar Serum.
L’Oréal’s Professional Products division achieved market share gains across all regions, notably the US and China, with strong performances from the Kerastase, Redken and L’Oréal Professionnel brands, to reach revenues of US$4.294 billion.
Online sales were also a hotspot, rising 25.9 per cent to account for 28.9 per cent of L’Oreal’s total global sales. The company is strongly pursuing opportunities through new digital channels and investing heavily in data and AI to propel its e-commerce ambitions further.
2021 was an historic year for L’Oréal and the global beauty industry, added Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal. “Consumers want more health and safety in their products, more transparency, more sustainability and more science in an ever more digitalised market.
“What this year tells us is that the appetite for beauty is huge, universal and that beauty is essential for humans. Beauty is an offer-driven market powered by innovation, technology and by intuition and creativity. Beauty is a brand-powered market, where consumers relate to brands that come with a personality. Beauty is a market where scale matters and big brands and renowned products win.”