Message from the
Chief Executive Officer
AS A RESULT OF OUR AGILITY, RELEVANT STRATEGIC CHOICES AND STRONG INVESTMENT IN OUR BRANDS, L’ORÉAL CONTINUES TO SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORM THE BEAUTY MARKET.
Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal
« Dear Shareholders, your Group published its results for the third quarter of 2021 on Thursday, 21 October. The Group’s sales increased by +9.3% like-for-like over two years, compared with the first nine months of 2019, with a remarkable acceleration in the third quarter. All Divisions increased their growth over two years quarter after quarter.
As the public health situation has evolved, our employees have been safely and enthusiastically returning to the office in many countries over the last few months. As a result of our agility, relevant strategic choices and strong investment in our brands, L’Oréal continues to significantly outperform a beauty market that is gradually returning to pre-crisis levels.
All Zones and all Divisions are growing and contributing to the Group’s well-balanced growth. The US recovery is confirmed, and mainland China has sustained strong quarterly growth over two years, despite a few upheavals in the summer. We have maintained an offensive product launch strategy, and our performance is evidence of our brands’ desirability and of consumer demand for cutting-edge innovations. While in-store sales have recovered, e-commerce continues to grow rapidly and accounts for 26.6% of sales.
True to our dual goal for economic and corporate excellence, we are proud that L’Oréal USA has reached carbon neutrality(1) for all 25 of its sites. Moreover, the Group has been recognised as a Global Compact LEAD company by the United Nations for the seventh consecutive year, and ranked in Fortune’s Change the World list for 2021.
Since the start of the pandemic, L’Oréal has been constantly gaining strength and is ideally positioned to continue to grow at its pre-crisis pace. We are more confident than ever in this growth momentum. In an environment which remains uncertain, our performance in the third quarter strengthens our ambition to outperform the market and achieve a year of growth in both sales and profits. »
Sales at 30 September 2021
€23.19
Bn
+18.0%
like-for-like (2)
+15.3 %
based on reported figures
+29.7 %
growth in e-commerce (3)
More information on loreal-finance.com
(1) For scope 1 & 2 emissions.
(2) Like-for-like: based on comparable structures and identical exchange rates.
(3) Sales achieved on our brands’ own websites + estimated sales achieved by our brands corresponding to sales through our retailers’ websites (non-audited data). Like-for-like.