French cosmetics giant L’Oreal is looking to accelerate its business in emerging markets such as India. This comes amidst growing disposable incomes and proliferation of e-commerce channels in India leading to better access to branded products.
L’Oréal Global Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Hieronimus, last week told analysts, “ There will be 500 million more consumers that will be able to afford L’Oreal products by 2030, out of this half will be from India alone. It was definitely a market that was not ready for L’Oreal in terms of distribution network and purchasing power, a couple of years ago.“ He added that the market is now at the stage where the company will accelerate its business.
Doubled sales
The company said that emerging markets have doubled sales for the company in the last four years and now contribute over 16 per cent of the Group’s overall sales. “It is a great moment for us to accelerate because of the development of e-commerce and the development of the middle class. Suddenly you have millions of young men and women that can find our products and buy them from their phone instead of having to go to a small store where our catalogue was not displayed,” Heironimus stated while addressing a conference by Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY).
Untapped potential
He also noted that markets like India also present untapped potential for the company. “A good part of our portfolio is not distributed yet in these emerging markets and are white spaces. We launched CeraVe last year in India. Half of the luxury portfolio is not even distributed there,” the global chief of L’Oreal noted.
“So we are at the very beginning of the emerging markets adventure. As now there are consumers that can afford our products but can also have access to our products from their home,” he added. The company said it is focusing on strengthening its presence and learning more about emerging markets.
India’s beauty industry, which is the fastest growing, is projected to reach $34 billion by 2028 driven by online penetration of core beauty categories, as per a report released by Nykaa and Redseer last year.
