FOCUS
NICOLAS HIERONIMUS ANSWERS QUESTIONS FROM SHAREHOLDERS ON BOURSORAMA
On 21 September, L’Oréal’s Chief Executive Officer was invited to talk to Laurent Grassin, Media Director at Boursorama. During the shareholder event, Nicolas Hieronimous spoke about L’Oréal’s strategy and its twofold success in achieving financial performance while meeting ambitious social and environmental goals. Here are some extracts from their discussion.
What makes us feel optimistic and confident for the future is the fact that the beauty market is constantly growing. Beauty is an essential human need.
NICOLAS HIERONIMUS, Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal
How would you define L’Oréal’s identity today?
L’Oréal is the world’s No.1 beauty company, with more than 7 billion products sold annually and sales of
32 billion euros(1), representing 14% of the global beauty market. What sets us apart is having a single line of business; we focus only on beauty but we cover all of beauty, in line with our purpose: Create the beauty that moves the world. L’Oréal was established more than 110 years ago by Eugène Schueller, a chemist and entrepreneur. His unwavering belief - which became the main growth driver for L’Oréal - was in product superiority fuelled by Research & Innovation, with 4,000 researchers worldwide and an annual budget of more than a billion euros.
L’Oréal has 35 global brands across four Divisions, and is active in all distribution channels, at all price points and in four key categories: skincare, haircare and hair colour, makeup and fragrance, a booming category in which we are the global leader(2).
It’s a company that is constantly transforming itself and has become digital-first: digital is both a means of talking to our consumers and also of distributing our products; 27% of our sales are generated by
e-commerce. Another significant area of transformation is sustainable development: our financial success enables us to invest in our social and environmental commitments. The latest transformation now underway is in Beauty Tech: harnessing technology to enhance beauty performance. L’Oréal is a company I speak about passionately, because I’ve been here for 35 years, and I have seen it constantly transform itself while remaining true to its values and its vocation; this is the basis of its success today.
How do you remain the leader in such a competitive market?
Competition spurs us on! What makes us feel optimistic and confident for the future is the fact that the beauty market is constantly growing. Beauty is an essential human need. L’Oréal has set itself the goal of outperforming the market, thanks to the quality of our teams and their extraordinary level of commitment, and thanks to innovation. Our portfolio of complementary brands enables us to meet all beauty expectations. Our balanced geographic footprint is a key strength. Investment in research and new technologies,
like artificial intelligence, enables us to remain at the forefront. Finally, our strategic vision and shareholder stability – with the founding family as the main shareholder, another key reference shareholder, and more than 200,000 loyal individual shareholders – give us the ability to constantly adapt and stay on course in the long term.