L’Oréal growth remains strong in China despite economic slowdown

By Simon Pitman+, 02-Aug-2016, cosmeticsdesign-asia

 Despite the economic slowdown in China, L’Oréal’s performance in the country continues to go from strength to strength as the product innovation pipeline is maintained.

The article shares the information that for the first six months of the year the like-for-like growth was 4.6 to €2.8bn, while on a reported basis it rose 0.6%.

L’Oréal Luxe maintains momentum in China

Especially the performance of the luxury brands Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani contributed to the strong sales of the company’s luxe division. In the Asia Pacific region it has been driven by the launch of Ultra Doux in China and India, while in Southern Asia the reason lies behind the roll-out of the Garnier brand.

On an international basis, the company stressed that the currency negatively impacted the results by 3.9% for the first six month of the year. According to the group, the like-for-like revenues for the first half of the year accounted for 4.2% to €12.89bn, which represented a reported growth of 0.6%, taking into consideration the negative impact of currency exchange.

Interestingly, all divisions and geographies reported growth despite the impact from currency translation, while the Luxe and Active Cosmetics divisions were the most outstanding ones despite the challenging situation.

“L’Oréal Luxe, in a market that remains solid, is continuing to deliver sustained growth by capitalizing on its unique brand portfolio and by maintaining its innovation drive”, explains L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon, who points equally out that the strength of the group lies definitely within its balanced business model.

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Gucci et Yves Saint Laurent font le bonheur de Kering en 2016
 
By Romain, 29-juillet-2016+, Journal du Luxe, Business

Les chiffres de Kering au premier semestre 2016 sont tombés. Ils sont meilleurs que prévu. Le groupe de luxe poursuit sa croissance notamment grâce aux ventes en hausse de Gucci et Yves Saint Laurent.

Une croissance en continu pour Gucci et Yves Saint Laurent
Kering déjoue une nouvelle fois toutes les prévisions des analystes. Le groupe tenu par François-Henri Pinault ne cesse d’améliorer sa situation économique. Il a enregistré un bénéfice net en progression de 9,9% à hauteur de 465 millions d’euros durant les six premiers mois de l’année 2016.

Son chiffre d’affaires s’est établi à 5,69 milliards d’euros, en hausse de 3,3% en données publiées et de 5,5% en données organiques. En cause, le succès affiché des produits de Gucci et Yves Saint Laurent au niveau mondial. Les deux marques de luxe ont une nouvelle fois affirmé leur statut de moteur du groupe Kering.

Gucci a enregistré une hausse de ses ventes au deuxième trimestre 2016. La marque italienne a ainsi vu sa croissance organique grimper de 7,4%. Les analystes s’accordaient pourtant à dire que celle-ci serait comprise entre 2 et 3%.Yves Saint Laurent a fait encore mieux.

Bottega Veneta, seul point négatif pour Kering

Néanmoins, Kering ne parvient toujours pas à relancer la croissance de Bottega Veneta, une de ses marques phares. Elle poursuit son déclin et décroche encore de 9% au deuxième trimestre 2016.

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Spending on beauty up in China, despite cooling economy

By Lucy Whitehouse +, 27-Jul-2016, cosmeticdesign-europe

Chinese consumers are still keen to spend on beauty in China, according to newly released research from Mintel, with the majority of those surveyed stating they spent more on facial skin care in 2015 compared to 2014.

In 2014-2015 the total retail sales of cosmetics in China grew about 12%, as the article points it out and reached therefore the RBM 204.9 billion. According to Mintel the forecast for 2020: There will be still a high demand that will translate itself until 2020 into a RMB of 338 billion.  

The senior beauty and personal care analyst at Mintel explains that Chinese purchases move to online retailing, wherefore marketing will be key success factor for Chinese beauty brands. The number of consumers using mobile devices when paying their beauty products has doubled during the past 2 years.

As Chen believes “mobile is becoming the battlefield for beauty retailers”. The next challenge is therefore to engage customers through a pore personalized and targeted presentation of the offers.

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L’Oreal confirms offer to buy niche thermal water skin care player

By Simon Pitman+, 15-Jul-2016, Cosmeticsdesign-europe

The world’s biggest cosmetics company has confirmed that it is going ahead with the acquisition of a tiny France-based skin player with a very long name: Société Des Thermes de Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains.

The article outlines that the acquired company has a hypoallergenic skin care portfolio formulated for sensitive skin types and contains safe preservatives that guarantee the formulation’s security and tolerance.

The range constitutes six different product lines from famed thermal waters: Cleansing, redness and irritations, greasy skin types and a treatment for acne, sun care and anti-ageing.

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L’Oréal’s wearable UV patch finally launched

By Lucy Whitehouse +, 10-Aug-2016, cosmeticsdesign-europe

L’Oréal has launched its long-awaited wearable UV patch technology allowing consumers to monitor exposure to harmful sun rays with a view to encouraging consumption of its La Roche-Posay sun care range.

This band aid-sized device is comprised of an ultra-thin heart-shaped sensor for UV radiation detection and was developed by a team of 25 researches across the world. It is intended to be launched in 16 countries and available for purchase on the La Roche-Posay website.

According to Guive Balooch, Vice President of L’Oréal R&I’s Connected Beauty incubator, “The connected technologies can fundamentally change the way we monitor exposure of the skin to various external factors such as UV rays”.

Details of the UV patch:

-          Printed electronic circuit on a flexible film

-          Contains photosensitive blue dye for color changes when exposed to UV light

-          Sensor linked to app for UV measurement over a certain time period

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Eye on the Trends in Asia: customisation

By Lucy Whitehouse +, 20-Jul-2016, cosmeticsdesign-asia

Four key trends are tipped to define the skin care market in Asia in the coming years, according to research from Euromonitor International. In this series of specials, Cosmetics Design takes a closer look at each, starting here with customisation.

According to a research analyst with Euromonitor based in Singapore, customization is defined as key trend, since the consumer demand for personalized skin care products is growing. Indeed, 50.5% of the respondents claimed ‘suited to my skin type’ as the decisive element during their last skin care purchase.

In China there are five key areas in which personalization is strongly demanded:

• Age
• Moisture balance
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Lifestyle

Consequently, the article outlines the importance of catering to consumers’ specific needs related to ethnicity and offering products that correspond to the consumers’ local environments, climates and cultural beliefs and identities.

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