L’Oréal posts strong Q1 sales growth despite China impact

French beauty giant L’Oréal has reported a 14.6 percent increase in sales in the first quarter despite still feeling the impact of restrictions in China.

The company made net sales of 10.38 billion euros in the quarter, up from 9.06 billion euros the prior year. On a like-for-like basis, sales rose 13 percent.

CEO Nicolas Hieronimus hailed the results, saying “L’Oréal has outperformed the market in all geographic zones and strengthened its leadership position”.

He continued: “This performance, which has yet to benefit from China’s reopening, demonstrates the strength of L’Oréal’s balanced multipolar model.”

The company said it saw double-digit growth in every geographic region except for North Asia, “due to a reduction of stock-in-trade in mainland China at the very beginning of the year”.

The trading update comes after L’Oréal earlier in April announced it had acquired Australian-founded luxury beauty company Aesop in a deal valued at 2.5 billion dollars.

“I am thrilled to soon welcome the magnificent Aēsop brand and its teams, which will reinforce L’Oréal Luxe,” Hieronimus said Wednesday.

He added: “Mindful of the current uncertainties, we remain optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market, ambitious for the future and confident in our ability to keep outperforming the market and achieve another year of growth in sales and profits in 2023.”