Luxury division becomes L'Oréal group's largest revenue-wise

By

Sarah Ahssen

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 11, 2022

In 2021, the L’Oréal group's luxury division recorded a growth of 20.9% in like-for-like terms, generating a revenue of €12.34 billion. The Luxe division, which includes Lancôme, Armani and Yves Saint Laurent, climbed to the top of the global beauty giant's revenue ranking, edging out the consumer goods division, which generated a revenue of €12.23 billion, growing by 5.6%. The latter division, which includes brands like Garnier and Maybelline, has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic revenue levels. Notably, its leading brand, L’Oréal Paris, generates by itself a revenue of €6 billion.

“L’Oréal Luxe has taken full advantage of its distribution channels’ complementarity, and has accelerated its sales growth in balanced fashion both online and in-store,” stated the group in a press release.  

In 2021, the division’s performance was notably driven by the fragrance market's recovery and the robust results of its leading perfumes, like Libre by Yves Saint Laurent, as well as by the launch of new fragrances like Alien Goddess by Mugler.

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L’Oréal Luxe also benefited from the premium skincare sector’s buoyant results, led by Lancôme and Helena Rubinstein, which has been discreetly relaunched in France.

Make-up products were less successful, still impacted by the pandemic, the widespread rise in remote working and mandatory mask-wearing, though L’Oréal noted the solid performance of Lancôme and Shu Uemura in this segment. The division, which recently acquired US skincare brand Youth to the People, recorded significant market share gains in northern Asia, and posted highly satisfactory results in Europe. It also became stronger in North America, after restructuring its distribution organisation.

Despite the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the retail sector, sales for global beauty giant L’Oréal reached €32.28 billion in 2021. On an annual basis, the French group posted an 8% revenue growth over 2019, and a 15.3% one over 2020.