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Investing.com -- L’Oréal posted stronger-than-expected sales growth in the first quarter of 2025, driven by robust performance in its Luxe division and solid demand in emerging markets, the company revealed Thursday.
The French company’s ADRs surged 6.5% following the results.
Group sales rose 3.5% on a like-for-like basis to €11.73 billion, beating the Bloomberg compiled analysts’ consensus estimate of 1.26% growth. Reported sales were up 4.4%.
“In what has been a particularly challenging and volatile operating environment, L’Oréal has started the year with growth in line with our projections,” said CEO Nicolas Hieronimus. “Europe was, once again, our single largest growth contributor and emerging markets remained dynamic.”
Sales advanced across all four company divisions. L’Oréal Luxe led with 5.8% like-for-like growth, boosted by strong demand for fragrances and new makeup launches such as Yves Saint Laurent’s Make Me Blush.
Dermatological Beauty rose 2.7%, while Consumer Products and Professional Products gained 2.3% and 1.6%, respectively.
Regionally, the SAPMENA-SSA zone delivered the strongest performance, growing 10.4% like-for-like. North Asia rose 6.9%, with mainland China slightly outperforming expectations.
Europe advanced 4.3%, while North America fell 3.8% due to a soft makeup market and a tough comparison base.
L’Oréal said its “Beauty Stimulus” innovation program was off to a “promising start,” with new product rollouts expected to boost sales further in coming quarters.
Hieronimus added, “Our priorities are to drive growth and manage our P&L to offset the impact of tariff hikes – with the benefit of an already very healthy gross margin.”
The company maintained its outlook for 2025, expecting to outperform the global beauty market and deliver another year of sales and profit growth.