L'Oréal’s Jean-Paul Agon: China’s beauty market still going strong

The Chinese beauty market is still going strong according to L'Oréal’s Jean-Paul Agon, the CEO of the world’s number one cosmetics brand, according to an interview published in the Financial Times on Tuesday.

“We have doubled the size of our business in China over the past four years and the country’s beauty market still very dynamic, especially the luxury segment,” said Agon.

“I know that there are other sectors and other product categories that have seen a bit of a slowdown but honestly, we haven’t seen anything like that in our market,” Agon added.

The growth of China’s consumption is expected to slow down this year, following a drop in retail sales last year to the lowest level in the past 15 years.

Agon also told the Financial Times that 35 percent of the brand’s sales are made online in China compared to 15 percent in the UK and 4 percent in France, underlining the fact that development in the e-commerce and digital market benefits large businesses in the sector.

Asked about the possibility of discussions with Nestlé about its 23 percent stake in L'Oréal, Agon said: “They are happy with their involvement with L'Oréal and we are happy to count them as shareholders.”