{"id":5427,"date":"2025-07-24T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=5427"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:14:10","slug":"whenever-we-see-a-small-company-with-a-good-idea-were-on-fire-how-ma-and-innovation-keep-loreal-ahead-in-global-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=5427","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhenever we see a small company with a good idea, we\u2019re on fire\u201d:\u00a0How M&A and innovation keep L\u2019Or\u00e9al ahead in\u00a0global beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
A decade ago, while L\u2019Or\u00e9al stood as the clear global leader in beauty, a new set of independent brands was beginning to gain traction. Despite their at first comparatively microscopic scale, digital natives Glossier and e.l.f. Beauty, celebrity challengers such as Fenty (Rihanna) and Kylie Cosmetics (Kylie Jenner), and the jostling ranks of Korean beauty brands all had a key advantage. While L\u2019Or\u00e9al and the other big players had marketing models based on traditional media and sales models based on brick-and-mortar retail, these competitors were perfectly adapted for the new age of social media, influencers, and e-commerce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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It sounds like the preamble to a business-school case study on disruption, the kind that doesn\u2019t end well for the disrupted. Yet L\u2019Or\u00e9al didn\u2019t have its Kodak moment. Instead, despite the intensifying competition, it has consistently outperformed the \u20ac290 billion global beauty market, which itself continues to grow at an estimated +4.5% in 2024.<\/p>\n\n
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91 L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s rank on the Fortune 500 Europe<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
Today, L\u2019Or\u00e9al remains one of the jewels in the French corporate crown, its 37 brands selling a bewildering array of potions, creams, cleansers, serums, dyes, moisturizers, mascaras, beauty devices, and more, across more than 150 countries. The group\u2019s $47 billion turnover is nearly double what it was in 2014, comfortably outpacing the likes of Est\u00e9e Lauder or Beiersdorf over the same period, and still towering above the next generation of competitors. What is it doing right?<\/p>\n
Innovation at the core <\/h2>\n
\u201cBeauty is an endless quest for humans, which is why the market is always evolving,\u201d says L\u2019Or\u00e9al deputy CEO Barbara Lavernos. Customer expectations evolve, too\u2014who wants obsolete wrinkle cream?\u2014 but the company has kept up with and in many cases exceeded those expectations. \u201cAt the end of the day, what works in beauty is really good products,\u201d Lavernos says.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason 116-year-old L\u2019Or\u00e9al was named Fortune\u2019s<\/em> most innovative European company earlier this year. Indeed, Lavernos\u2019s own 2021 elevation from executive vice president of operations to deputy CEO, where she oversees research, innovation and technology, is a measure of how centrally the group views product innovation in an offer-driven market. The company launched 3,636 formulas in 2024 alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, everyone wants to be innovative. L\u2019Or\u00e9al mostly succeeds. \u201cL\u2019Or\u00e9al invests heavily to make sure they can use new technologies to better identify the needs of customers; for example, with AI analyzing social media content, or to make a better formulation to address a specific need. They do this again and again with new technologies,\u201d explains Marc Mazodier, professor of marketing and beauty chair at ESSEC Business School.<\/p>\n
And L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s investment is considerable. The group\u2019s research and innovation budget is greater than those of its next three competitors combined, at \u20ac1.3 billion in 2024, or around 3% of net sales. It leans more than most toward hard science, with more than 4000 researchers globally working on better understanding everything from acne to aging, even pioneering reconstructed human skin 40 years ago, to eliminate animal testing.<\/p>\n\n
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\u201cBeauty is an endless quest for humans, which is why the market is always evolving\u201dBarbara Lavernos, L\u2019Or\u00e9al deputy CEO<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\u201cYou have to understand L\u2019Or\u00e9al is born from the mind of a chemist,\u201d Lavernos says, referring to Eug\u00e8ne Schueller, who founded the business in 1909 with an early hair dye sold to Parisian salons. \u201cScience has been, since the ignition of the company, the soul and beating heart of our group.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Mazodier\u2019s point, the patterns of investment are changing, however. Last year, for the first time, the company spent more on tech than on pure R&D, driven by AI. You can see this in things like L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s BETiq system, which optimizes resource allocation for advertising and promotions. CEO Nicolas Hieronimus recently said that BETiq had improved return on investment by 10% to 15%, and now covers over 40% of L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s \u20ac13 billion consumer-facing advertising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more: L\u2019Oreal sees Middle East and Southeast Asia as next growth engines as China slows: \u2018Eventually demographics have to win\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Tech also makes its way into the lab. L\u2019Or\u00e9al scientists were able to tap into its 17,300-terabyte beauty database to create digital twins for different types of curly or coily hair, allowing in silico research to test responses to different molecules, which Lavernos says can be 100 times as fast as the traditional experimental route. This discovery directly led to new, high-performing products, including Redken\u2019s Acidic Bonding Curls, the first no-sulfate, no-silicone bonding treatment designed specifically for curly hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cTech is really the game changer in my professional life. I\u2019ve worked here 35 years, and I would never have imagined, in my engineer\u2019s brain, the way we work, interact, and sell products to consumers today. And I have no clue what it will be 10 years from now, because a new innovation happens every week,\u201d Lavernos says.<\/p>\n
A long-term play <\/h2>\n
Lavernos\u2019s decades-long career is not at all unusual at L\u2019Or\u00e9al. Longevity of service is de rigueur at the group; Hieronimus is known internally as a \u201cL\u2019Or\u00e9al baby,\u201d and is only the sixth CEO in its history. This is a company that plays the long game, something made easier by its ownership structure: L\u2019Or\u00e9al is still majority owned by the founder\u2019s family, the Bettencourt Meyers, and by Swiss conglomerate Nestl\u00e9, which bought a stake in 1974.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
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\u201cScience has been, since the ignition of the company, the soul and beating heart of our group.\u201dBarbara Lavernos<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\u201cImagine my role in research or in tech. You are beginning a science that you need to cook and accelerate, but the real delivery might happen years later. So here, having this stable family ownership is fantastic,\u201d Lavernos says. \u201cBut because we\u2019re also on the stock exchange, we are as challenged as if we were not family-owned, so we could say sincerely it\u2019s the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond enabling tech and research investments, you can see long-termism in action in L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s disciplined and strategic approach to M&A, with winning investments since 2014 in the likes of NYX, CeraVe, Aesop, and Dr. G.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re picking companies that can add to their portfolio. So Dr. G gives them access to this booming Korean-beauty trend. But they\u2019re taking the brand and making use of L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s huge marketing budget, supply-chain structure, and scientific advances, which give those smaller companies access to a global stage. It\u2019s very clever, because it doesn\u2019t try to subsume those smaller companies into L\u2019Or\u00e9al,\u201d says Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform AJ Bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indeed, many consumers wouldn\u2019t realize that brands like La RochePosay, SkinCeuticals, Maybelline, Lanc\u00f4me, Kiehl\u2019s, Pureology, and Garnier were part of the same group, because they have such distinct identities and operate at different ends of the cosmetics, skin-care, make-up and hair-care markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same applies to its lucrative licensing partnerships in fragrances with luxury brands like Prada, YSL, and Armani: win-win propositions that give the brands access to L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s retail scale and expertise, while allowing L\u2019Or\u00e9al to benefit from their existing brand appeal. It\u2019s paid off: Recent deals signed with Miu Miu and Jacquemus have helped the group\u2019s \u20ac15 billion Luxe division take overall global leadership in prestige (luxury) beauty for the first time.<\/p>\n\n
(Sources: Regulatory filings; S&P Global. (Figures are 2024 full-year results.))<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cBrand equity is a treasure. It\u2019s quite easy to develop a brand quickly, but then you won\u2019t be sure you can protect the brand equity,\u201d Lavernos says. The idea instead is to nurture the brand over time: \u201cImagine a family in which you adopt your sons and daughters. You welcome them into the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hair Evaluation Room at the L\u2019Oreal Research & Innovation Center at the Kanagawa Science Park in Kawasaki, Japan.<\/figcaption>
Lavernos describes a recent visit by the founders of British skin-care brand Medik8, in which L\u2019Or\u00e9al took a majority stake in June, to L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s labs in France: \u201cImagine the joy for me to observe the discussion between these two scientists and our team. They were so excited because they had access to so much equipment and science. We don\u2019t know what we will launch together, but undoubtedly we will create new products because the capacity is there. It\u2019s true in media investment, in finance, in all functions. But if we don\u2019t keep their brand equity, which makes their success, we are destroying value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strength in breadth<\/h2>\n
The result of this M&A approach is a well-configured, complementary, and uniquely broad portfolio that reaches every geography, category, price point, and demographic segment.<\/p>\n
Strength in breadth protects the group from downturns in particular markets: Unlike Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Est\u00e9e Lauder, L\u2019Or\u00e9al is exposed to both mass and prestige beauty, as well as the rapidly growing dermatological skin-care market, and professional hair care. When one does badly, the others tend to compensate, with prestige customers trading down in a pinch, for example. In China, where the market for global beauty brands has declined sharply since 2022 amid an economic slowdown and rising local competition, L\u2019Or\u00e9al has seen a contraction, but has been relatively buoyed by its focus on prestige products there, which have been less affected than the mass market.<\/p>\n
Yet diversification isn\u2019t just defensive. It has also provided ample opportunities in a market where there is still a lot of growth. RBC Capital Markets analyst Fon Udomsilpa says that L\u2019Or\u00e9al has an excellent record of spotting these opportunities and then committing resources to capitalize, both by capturing share and by growing the overall category further. \u201cA good example is face masks, which come from Korean beauty. L\u2019Or\u00e9al is the only listed Western company that has actually captured share from Korean companies, and in many markets it is actually the leader in that category,\u201d Udomsilpa explains.<\/p>\n
Barbara Lavernos, L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s deputy CEO, in charge of Research, Innovation, and Technology.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of L\u2019Or\u00e9al<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Geographically, breadth has allowed L\u2019Or\u00e9al to achieve particularly impressive results in Africa and Asia (outside of China, Japan, and Korea): Like-for-like sales in these regions rose 12.3% in 2024. But growth has also been strong in its traditional markets like Europe (up 8.2%) and North America (up 5.5%).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lavernos points not only to category expansion, like K\u00e9rastase\u2019s new night serum for hair (\u201cI love it, I use it every day\u201d), but also to demographic expansion to help explain this. Boomer men, she notes, are an undertapped but rapidly growing segment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can this growth continue indefinitely, though?<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a veteran of this company, I know what it takes to stay where we are. Being a market leader is the most challenging position, by definition,\u201d Lavernos says. \u201cI learned during my first week here that I must adopt a sane way of worrying, a healthy concern\u2026[So] what am I fearing for the future?\u00a0Disruption that re-deals the cards of the game in a very different manner. If you see science-fiction movies you sometimes see ways to manage your beauty that are very different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instant, automated, personalized beauty, \u00e0 la The Jetsons<\/em>, hasn\u2019t quite arrived yet. But L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s culture of healthy concern was evident when Hieronimus announced the group\u2019s \u201cbeauty stimulus\u201d plan last year. Despite another year of record sales, there have been challenges in some markets outside of China, such as U.S. mass-market makeup, where e.l.f. Beauty and others have gained market share, leading L\u2019Or\u00e9al to an intensification of new product launches, across all categories, but particularly targeted at Gen Z and social media users.<\/p>\n
Lavernos is vigilant but bullish. \u201cWhy should I be confident for the future? Because of the quality and the assertive spirit we have in this company, confronting ideas, having points of view that are different,\u201d she says. \u201cWhenever we see a small company with a good idea on social media, or a good product, we are on fire. We are competitors. We are often inspired to reach for more when we see others achieve great things.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u2019Or\u00e9al, in other words, has no intention of resting on its laurels. It intends to keep changing with the changing market, so it can stay ahead.<\/p>\n
\u2014With additional reporting by Prarthana Prakash<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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