L'Oreal Upbeat on 2022 Growth as 1Q Sales Brush Off Inflation

   By Joshua Kirby 
 

L'Oreal SA said Tuesday that it is confident of outperforming the beauty market in 2022 after first-quarter sales grew across regions and product categories despite inflation and pandemic pressures.

The French cosmetics giant made total sales of 9.06 billion euros ($9.77 billion) in the quarter, rising 14% like-for-like from EUR7.61 billion in the previous-year period.

Analysts had expected sales of EUR8.82 billion, according to a poll of estimates compiled by FactSet.

Every business division and geographic region posted growth in the quarter, with Europe sales increasing by 16% to EUR2.85 billion and North Asia sales rising 9.4%. This included double-digit growth in mainland China despite headwinds from strict lockdowns in several cities in March, L'Oreal said.

Growth was unaffected by inflation, which had no impact on consumer purchasing trends, the company said.

Looking ahead, L'Oreal said it is upbeat about the beauty market's prospects this year and about its own outperformance of the market. The company expects to achieve another year of sales and profit growth, it added.

Write to Joshua Kirby at [e-mail]; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2022 12:30 ET (16:30 GMT)

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