Cosmetics and personal care giant L'Oréal saw its sales figures climb 4.2% in Q1 on a like-for-like basis to reach just over €7 billion.
Of its operational divisions, L'Oréal Luxe was the outstanding performer in terms of improvement, growing its sales by 12.2 % to €2.16 billion, while its Consumer Products division was up 1.4% to €3.23 billion.
Professional Products was down by 1.8%, registering €858.2 million, while Active Cosmetics brought in €603.2 million (up 2.8%).
"The cosmetics market has unexpectedly proven extremely atypical in the first weeks of the year, with very strong consumption of luxury products, especially in Asia, and, on the contrary, a very slow start for consumption in the mass-market and the professional market,” said company chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon.
“In this context, the Group delivered a good first quarter, up by +7.5% based on reported figures and +4.2% like-for-like. Performance levels are consequently very differentiated across the Divisions, with outstanding growth for L'Oréal Luxe, a satisfactory start for Active Cosmetics, moderate growth for Consumer Products despite market share gains, and a slight drop for Professional Products."
Sales in Western Europe are "continuing to hold up well," Agon added, "despite a disappointing market in France, thanks to outstanding growth rates in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
North America is continuing to "prove dynamic", Agon said. "Lastly, the New Markets delivered a solid performance, particularly in Eastern Europe and Asia; Brazil remains difficult and the Middle East is affected by the downturn of the markets."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
