L’Oréal Gears Up for Future Conquests in Three Main Domains

Jennifer Weil

7 February 2025 at 4:50 pm·7-min read

PARIS – L’Oréal chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus has outlined how the company is gearing up for future conquests, including geographic, consumer and technological spaces in the beauty galaxy.

He shared the strategy during a meeting Friday with analysts and journalists at L’Oréal headquarters in the Paris suburb of Clichy, which came one day after the release of the company’s results.

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As previously reported, L’Oréal sales in the three months ended Dec. 31 reached 11.08 billion euros, up 4.5 percent in reported terms and 2.5 percent on an organic basis. For full-year 2024, sales equaled 43.49 billion euros, a 5.6 percent rise in reported terms and 5.1 percent on a like-for-like basis.

L’Oréal stock closed Friday down 3.5 percent to 304.60 euros.

Also on Thursday, L’Oréal said Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, granddaughter of the company’s founder, age 71, has chosen to retire from the group’s board after 28 years. Bettencourt Meyers’ vice chairmanship is to be passed to her son Jean-Victor Meyers. His brother Nicolas Meyers has been named to join the board, too.

Bettencourt Meyers is expected to be succeeded by Alexandre Benais, deputy CEO of Téthys Invest. That is the Bettencourt Meyers family’s holding company, which is L’Oréal’s largest shareholder with 34.7 percent of its capital.

The appointments will be voted on at the company’s annual general meeting on April 29.

In Clichy at the analysts meeting, Hieronimus described each upcoming focal point for the group.

“These new spaces are: the geographic space powered by favorable demographics and economies, the new consumer space with superior growth and penetration opportunities,” he said. “And third, but not the least, we will explore new technologies that will shape the beauty of tomorrow.”

First up geography-wise is the U.S.

“The U.S. is one of the few developed markets with actual population growth. Over the next five years, the number of potential consumers is expected to increase by 12 million,” said Hieronimus. This will be spurred by the Latino population, which is younger and with a keen beauty focus, particularly in makeup and fragrance.

The number of consumers identifying themselves as multiracial has more than tripled over the last decade to make up over 10 percent of the U.S. population. That’s set to keep growing and will result in new beauty needs.

“Third, the U.S. accounts for one-third of the global affluent population and 60 percent of their global spend,” said Hieronimus.

Emerging markets — where there are 2 billion potential L’Oréal consumers — are also in the spotlight. That count will rise by 500 million, with half in India.

“The time for us to win is now,” said Hieronimus, adding, “The Middle East, and in particular Saudi Arabia, is also a major opportunity. That’s why, beyond the local appetite for Western brands, we have decided to invest in Amouage, the magnificent, fast-growing prestige fragrance brand from Oman.”

There are various consumer clusters of interest.

“We estimate that there are 4.2 billion beauty consumers in the world, and that we touch 1.3 billion of them today,” said Hieronimus, explaining over the next decade, it’s L’Oréal’s ambition to reach 2 billion consumers.

Gen Z already makes up more than 20 percent of potential consumers, and the cohort might increase by another 150 million in the next five years.

“What makes them attractive? Well, first, Gen Z are the biggest consumer clusters in emerging markets, and their rapidly rising affluence, digital savviness and beauty obsession make them a core target,” said Hieronimus.

By 2030, 370 million Gen Zers will be over 25 years old, with more disposable income and a more sophisticated beauty routine. Two hundred million Gen Alpha consumers, many of whom are already beauty aficionados, will be coming of age by then. So they can be nurtured as tomorrow’s consumers.

“Across all our divisions, we have very strong plans to intensify the recruitment of Gen Z,” said Hieronimus. “Acne will be a key focus for a number of our derma mass and luxury brands, and the Luxe division has several targeted makeup launches.”

Another key demographic is men. Products for males today make up less than 10 percent of the global beauty market.

“Yet men account for one-quarter of global beauty usage, and they can constitute half of our potential consumer base,” said Hieronimus. “The opportunity is huge.”

L’Oréal plans to double down on fragrance, a category in which males already represent one-third of the group’s sales. The company will offer more differentiated hair care products, such as solution-driven offers, plus step up skin care penetration and encourage more sophisticated routines.

“We see penetration rates increasing everywhere,” said Hieronimus.

In China, more than 50 percent of men regularly use facial skin care products. And males are catching up in Europe, with 32 percent. Over in India, men account for 50 percent of Garnier sales.

L’Oréal is homing on in people aged 60-plus, who today comprise 21 percent of the world’s population, but 28 percent of beauty demand. At the end of this decade, that demographic will make up more than 1 billion of the company’s potential consumers. (Two-thirds will be Baby Boomers and one-third, Gen Z.)

“That’s 200 million more than this year,” said Hieronimus. “More than half of them will live in developed markets.”

The cohort tends to spend more on beauty as they age. The average Boomer shells out more than $400 yearly, practically two-times Gen Y and two-and-a-half times as Gen Z.

When it comes to new technologies, the quest for longevity is a theme. So L’Oréal invests and partners with companies in the field. And the group has dedicated research to the topic over the years, which has been poured into l’Oréal Longevity Integrative Science, focused on the nine hallmarks of aging.

Hieronimus introduced L’Oréal’s Longevity AI Cloud, a map of 267 biomarkers that is billed to allow the group to create three intervention models and therefore extend cellular health span in new ways by targeting the root causes of aging in an integrative way.

“We believe that L’Oréal R&I has cracked the code of lifelong skin health,” said Hieronimus. First outputs can be seen with the L’Oréal Cell BioPrint device and Lancôme’s Absolue Longevity Serum, which just launched in South Korea.

“That said, I believe that to address consumers’ concerns about longevity and well-aging, we require beauty solutions that expand outside the traditional beauty market,” said Hieronimus. “One of them is supplements.

“Cosmetic and beauty supplements are a 15-billion-euro market that is growing two to three points faster than the beauty market,” he continued.

As penetration rates rise rapidly across all regions, L’Oréal is entering the space with the launch of Skinbetter Science BioRewind. Hieronimus said there’s more to come from numerous other L’Oréal brands.

Devices comprise an exciting category, too, with some recent additions including L’Oréal Paris Colorsonic and L’Oréal Professionnel’s AirLight Pro.

“While we have entered the three territories, there’s a fourth one that we continue to observe from the outside, and that’s aesthetics,” said Hieronimus. “We need to understand whether we want to play and have a right to win inside this market, or whether we remain on the outskirts, [with] our existing topical dermo beauty brands SkinCeuticals and Skinbetter Science.

“That’s why we have taken participations in clinics in China and North America, and taken a 10 percent stake in Galderma, and signed with them a scientific partnership,” he said. “This gives us a privileged position to observe and understand this market. And we remain today in this position, regardless of the Sanofi stock sale.”

He was referring to Sanofi earlier this month buying back shares from L’Oréal for 3 billion euros.

Hieronimus said the conquests driving the group’s next chapter will be fueled by L’Oréal’s own science.

“Science has been at the heart of what we do from our first day 115 years ago, and [we] will leverage this competence for tomorrow’s beauty solutions,” he said.

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