L'Oreal sales revenue hits 15-year high

The world's largest cosmetics group, L'Oreal, saw sales revenue of its Chinese business swell by 35 percent in 2019, hitting a 15-year high, the company's China chief executive officer, Fabrice Megarbane, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the group's overall sales revenue came in at 29.87 billion euros ($33.27 billion) last year. The group's year-on-year growth reached 8 percent, which was a new record since 2007. Propped by the Chinese market's robust growth in the fourth quarter, Asia Pacific was registered as the largest regional market within the L'Oreal group, Megarbane said.

While the outbreak of the novel coronavirus may exert some negative impact on the company's business in China in the short term, largely due to the contracted number of customers in department stores during epidemic control and prevention, Megarbane said that the company has seen a surge in online retailing platforms. He also stressed that the rebound will be much more noticeable once the epidemic ends.

Looking into the following months in 2020, L'Oreal will see the sales revenue of Khiels' - a skincare brand within the group - exceed 3 billion yuan ($432 million) in China. Urban Decay and NYX - the two cosmetics brands made their debut in the Chinese market at last year's China International Import Expo - will be available to Chinese consumers via cross-border channels this year. The launch events for the two brands will be held at the end of the first quarter, the French cosmetics giant said.

As L'Oreal China is tapping into the venture capital field, it will gradually open up its ecosystem to startup companies to better integrate into Chinese startups. Only in this way can the company build its Chinese ecosystem uniquely and completely, Megarbane said.