LOréal reorganises business structure with more local focus

LOréal is reorganising its international operations around three main regions - western and Eastern Europe and the Americas - supported by a new bi-partite organisation focused respectively on the mass market in cosmetics and specific sales areas such as perfumeries.

Jean-Paul Agon, the groups President, has said that with 75% of sales drawn from outside the Eurozone there needs to be a new balance between regional markets and international brands. The mass market division of the group, comprising Garnier, LOréal Paris and Maybelline, will be accompanied by a new management entity covering the groups selective divisions in which the high end products will be regrouped. This will include luxury products such as Lancôme and Kiehls, the pharmacy sales sector including Vichy and La Roche-Posay and the professional hair brands.

Agon said the mass market products had developed with an increasingly regional emphasis base So, for example, there will be one plan for Garnier in China and another in India.

The situation with luxury cosmetics and perfumes or the pharmacy sector is viewed by the group as quite different. Agon said clients expected the same YSL Beauté product worldwide. Each new basis for the business accounts for almost 50% of total sales which reached €22.5bn last year.