Against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine and increased lockdown measures in China, global beauty company L’Oréal had a strong first quarter with sales of $9.8 billion, an increase of 13.5% like-for-like and 19.0% reported.
 
The positive performance was spurred by growth in the Luxe, Professional Products and Active Cosmetics Divisions, plus gains in North America and China.
 
“[L’Oréal] continued to outpace the beauty market across all Zones and Divisions, recording strong growth by volume and value,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal. “L’Oréal Luxe, Professional Products and Active Cosmetics all achieved double-digit growth, and our Consumer Products Division again outperformed the market despite supply-chain challenges.
 
Furthermore, the global beauty company made the most of its omnichannel strategy, with a revival in offline sales while e-commerce continued to grow, representing 25.8% of sales.
 
L’Oréal’s growth was balanced across all geographic Zones, with continued momentum in North America, double-digit growth in mainland China, and an acceleration in emerging markets as well as in Europe, where growth was muted by a number of lockdowns in early 2021.
 
While mindful of volatility and uncertainty, Hieronimus says that the company remains optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market and confident in its ability to outperform the market in 2022 and achieve a year of growth in sales and profits.