L'Oreal

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The L'Oréal Group Euronext: [FR0000120321], headquartered in Clichy, France, is the world's leading cosmetics and beauty company. L'Oréal has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care. L'Oréal is active in the dermatological and pharmaceutical fields. L'Oréal is also the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.

Contents

1 History
2 Business

2.1 Corporate governance

2.1.1 Board of directors
2.1.2 Management committee

2.2 Stockholders
2.3 Earnings
2.4 Joint ventures and minority interests

3 Brands

3.1 Mass market products
3.2 Professional products
3.3 Luxury products
3.4 Active cosmetics

4 Trivia
5 External links

History

In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole. With that, the history of L'Oréal began. Eugène Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then sold to Parisian hairdressers.

In 1909, Schueller registered his company, the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux ("Safe Hair Dye Company of France"), the future L'Oréal. The guiding principles of the company that would become L'Oréal were put into place from the start: research and innovation in the interest of beauty.

During the early twentieth century, Schueller provided financial support and held meetings for La Cagoule at L'Oréal headquarters. La Cagoule was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group. L'Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after WWII.

In 1920, the small company already employed 3 chemists. By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today.

L'Oréal got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing/beauty products. L'Oréal now markets over 50 brands and many thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, styling aids, body and skin care, cleansers and fragrances. They are found in all distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hyper- and supermarkets, health/beauty outlets, pharmacies and direct mail.

L'Oréal has five worldwide research and development centers. Two in France: Aulnay and Chevilly. One in U.S.: Clark, New Jersey. One in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa. In 2005, one established in China: Shanghai.

L'Oréal purchased Synthélabo in 1973 to pursue its ambitions in the pharmaceutical field. Synthélabo merged with Sanofi in 1999 to become Sanofi-Synthélabo. Sanofi-Synthélabo merged with Aventis in 2004 to become Sanofi-Aventis.

On 17 March 2006 L'Oréal made a £652 million agreed takeover of ethical cosmetics company The Body Shop.

Business

Corporate governance

Board of directors

Current members of the board of directors of L'Oréal are: Francisco Basco, Werner Bauer, Liliane Bettencourt, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Jean-Louis Dumas, Xavier Fontanet, Bernard Kasriel, Marc Lacharrière, Françoise Meyers, Jean-Pierre Meyers, Lindsay Owen-Jones, Franck Riboud, and Louis Schweitzer.

Management committee

The management committee includes:

Jean-Paul Agon, Chief Executive Officer
Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman of the Board of Directors
Béatrice Dautresme, EVP of Strategic Business Development
Jean-François Grollier, EVP of Research and Development
Marcel Lafforgue, EVP of Production
Christian Mulliez, VP of Finances
Jean-Jacques Lebel, President of Professional Products
Patrick Rabain, President of Consumer Products
Geoff Skingsley, EVP of Human Resources
Marc Menesguen, President of Luxury Products

Stockholders

Breakdown of share ownership: 27.5% by the Bettencourt Family, 26.4% by Nestlé, 3.9% treasury shares, the remaining 42.2% are publically traded.

Voting rights distribution: 28.6% to the Bettencourt Family, 27.5% to Nestlé, and 43.9% to the public.

Earnings

In 2003, L'Oréal announced its 19th consecutive year of double-digit growth. Its consolidated sales was €14.029 bn and net profit was €1.653 bn. 96.7% of sales derived from cosmetic activities and 2.5% from dermatology activities. L'Oréal has operations in over 130 countries, employing 50,500 people, 24% of which work in France. 3.3% of cosolidated sales is invested in research and development, which accounts for 2,900 of its employees. In 2003, it applied for 515 patents. It operates 42 manufacturing plants throughout the world, which employ 14,000 people.

Cosmetics sales by division breakdown: 54.8% from consumer products at €7.506 bn, 25.1% from luxury products at €3.441 bn, 13.9% from professional products at €1.9 bn, and 5.5% from active cosmetics at €0.749 bn.

Cosmetic sales by geographic zone breakdown: 52.7% from Western Europe at €7.221 bn, 27.6% from North America at €3.784 bn, 19.7% from rest of the world at €2.699 bn.

Joint ventures and minority interests

L'Oréal holds 10.41% of the shares of Sanofi-Aventis, the world's number 3 and Europe's number 1 pharmaceutical company. The Laboratoires Inneov is a joint venture in nutritional cosmetics between L'Oréal and Nestlé; they draw on L'Oréal's know-how in the fields of nutrition and food safety. Galderma is another joint venture in dermatology between L'Oréal and Nestlé.

Brands

Brands are categorized by their targeted markets, which are mass market, professional, luxury, and active.

Mass market products

[L'Oréal Paris]

Professional products

Luxury products

Active cosmetics

Trivia

L'Oréal's famous advertising slogan is "Because I'm worth it". It has recently been replaced by "Because you're worth it".
The slogan for Maybelline New York is "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline".

External links

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