"It's the biggest growth for 33 years," group chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus told AFP.
"It's a somewhat special year because it's a year of rebound," he nuances, however.
L'Oréal remains "confident" for 2022 in its ability to do better than the beauty market.
Mr. Hieronimus estimates that the latter should "grow this year between 4 and 5%, its cruising speed before the crisis".
After a year 2020 weighed down by the pandemic, the health restrictions of 2021 this time did not slow down the group which achieves a turnover of more than 32 billion euros, up 8% compared to 2009 and a net profit of 4.6 billion euros.
A performance slightly higher than the consensus established by Bloomberg and Factset, which forecast sales of around 32 billion euros.
Profitability also increased with a current operating margin of 19.1% against 18.6% the two previous years.
The general manager of the L'Oréal group, Nicolas Hieronimus, on August 26, 2021 in Paris Eric PIERMONT AFP / Archives
“All divisions, regions and categories not only contributed” to this result but also outperformed their market, according to Hieronimus.
For the first time, L'Oréal Luxe products (Lancôme, Yves Saint-Laurent, Giorgio Armani, etc.) take the lead in the rankings with 12.34 billion euros in sales, slightly exceeding consumer products (Garnier, Maybelline, L'Oreal Paris...).
– “Strong comeback of perfumes” –
A performance driven by the astonishing success of perfumes.
"There has been a strong comeback of perfumes and even beyond our expectations", according to Nicolas Hieronimus.
"With the Covid, the perfume which was more dedicated to seduction has also become a way of taking care of oneself", he analyzes.
“We see that as soon as the health restrictions are lifted, consumers want to meet again”, underlines the general manager, and reuse beauty products, in particular the products which had been the most penalized by the pandemic: make-up and perfumes. .
"There is a rebound in make-up which is still lower than in 2019, and a very strong rebound in perfume. We had an extraordinary year in perfume, +35%", he adds.
The Active Cosmetics division (La Roche-Posay, Vichy, etc.) has "doubled in size in four years" reaching 3.9 billion in sales, responding to customer demand "in terms of health", according to the group.
It exceeds the division of professional products (Kerastase, Redken, etc.), which is still progressing with 3.79 billion euros in sales.
An employee of the L'Oréal company checks the quality of cosmetics on a production line in Lassigny, in the north of France, on October 6, 2021 FRANCOIS LO PRESTI AFP / Archives
Geographically, Europe, the main market with 10.18 billion in sales, has "started growing again (...) but remains behind compared to 2019", according to the group.
North Asia ranks second with 9.86 billion euros in sales.
Mainland China saw "strong double-digit growth in 2021, twice the growth of the beauty market," the statement said.
During the last quarter, L'Oréal China achieved 50% higher growth compared to 2019 on a comparable basis", according to the group.
"We have next to a Europe which is our bastion, two big engines of growth which are the United States and China which allowed us to make this exceptional year", explains to AFP Mr. Hieronimus.
L'Oréal has also strengthened its digital presence with a 25.7% increase over one year in e-commerce, which now represents 28.9% of turnover.
© 2022 AFP