EXTRACT FROM THE CEO’S SPEECH
The potential to attract new consumers is vast, and L’Oréal is ideally positioned.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Shareholders,
In 2024, L’Oréal once again strengthened its position as the world’s No.1 beauty company. The past year was marked by the agile, real-time management of multiple crises, and at the same time by the preparation for the future through accelerating the Group’s transformation. We delivered solid like-for-like revenue growth of +5.1%, outpacing the global beauty market’s growth of +4.5%. We outperformed the market in four of our five regions with a strong acceleration in emerging markets, which accounted for 36% of the Group’s overall growth.
This year, our operating margin reached a new record of 20%, while we continued to invest heavily in our brands to fuel our long-term growth. This is the power behind the virtuous circle of L’Oréal’s income statement.
Against a backdrop of continuing volatility, L’Oréal continues to stay the course, resilient in the storm, as you can see from our solid results for the first quarter of 2025.
We firmly believe that the beauty market will continue to grow at an average rate of around +4% to 5% in the coming years.
Today, more than ever, we are stepping up L’Oréal’s transformation based on three strategic pillars: organisational agility and resilience; scientific and technological excellence; and the sustainable transformation of our business.
Each year, we devote more than €1.3 billion to research. Our mastery of artificial intelligence enables us to better harness the power of 16,000 terabytes of data to push back the boundaries of creativity, improve the effectiveness of our advertising and strengthen the capacity for innovation of our researchers and teams across the Group.
The L’Oréal for the Future programme reflects our belief that economic performance and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand.
As we reach the halfway point in this programme, we are pleased to share our updated roadmap for 2030. Over the next five years, we will step up our efforts to meet the 15 new goals of L’Oréal for the Future, while remaining transparent about the means we can deploy.
I am particularly proud to announce the launch of a new Sustainable Innovation Accelerator. We are issuing a global call for startups capable of advancing innovation in climate, water, circularity, alternative packaging and ingredients, which we will support with a €100 million budget over five years.
We are setting out to conquer three new areas, each representing a new horizon for growth: geographically through new growth markets; consumer groups such as Generation Z, the over-60s and men; and new technologies which are opening new areas adjacent to the traditional beauty market, including longevity, connected beauty devices and the aesthetic beauty market.
The potential to attract new consumers is vast, and L’Oréal is ideally positioned. With our unmatched portfolio of 37 international brands, we cover all categories, all price ranges and all distribution channels.
So it is with confidence and ambition that we embark on this new chapter of the L’Oréal Adventure, firmly committed to creating financial and non-financial value over the long term.
And because the L’Oréal Adventure is above all a human one, on behalf of everyone at L’Oréal, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who has inspired an entire generation of L’Oréal people with the pioneering and family spirit that defines our company.
I am determined to carry this legacy forward and steer L’Oréal toward new horizons of growth in order to create the beauty that moves the world.”
Relive the highlights of the Annual General Meeting
