L’Oréal has posted impressive half-year sales for 2024, surpassing €22 billion, even as the Chinese beauty market faces ongoing difficulties. Sales grew by 7.5% in the first six months of the year, with net profits also climbing by 8.8% to reach €3.65 billion.
A significant driver of this growth was L’Oréal’s Dermatological Beauty division, which saw a 16.4% increase in sales on a like-for-like basis. La Roche-Posay continued to be the top-performing skincare brand, and CeraVe also outpaced the global market during the first half of the year.
Despite the overall positive performance, L’Oréal faced a 3.1% decline in sales in North Asia, largely due to challenging conditions and low consumer confidence in mainland China. However, there were signs of improvement in the travel retail sector, which had previously impacted sales growth.
Japan showed a strong performance with double-digit growth, benefiting from the resurgence of tourism in 2023. L’Oréal’s CEO, Nicolas Hieronimus, commented on the situation: “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.”
European sales rose by 12.2%, with robust make-up and skincare sales in Germany, Spain, the UK, and Ireland. The Consumer Products division saw notable gains in Europe, increasing by 8.3%. Emerging markets like Brazil, Mexico, and India also contributed to the division’s success, driven by popular products such as L’Oréal Paris Panorama mascara, NYX Professional’s Makeup Duck Plump lip gloss, and Maybelline’s New York Sunkisser blush.
Hieronimus expressed confidence in the company’s future, stating, “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.”
Overall, L’Oréal’s diverse portfolio and strategic presence in various markets have enabled it to navigate challenges and continue its trajectory of growth.