China focus: Latest developments in China’s booming beauty market

L’Oréal CEO targets China’s lower tier cities to drive future growth​​

L’Oréal’s chief is eyeing increased penetration in China’s tier-three and four cities, which he believes can help the French beauty major double its customer base and drive more growth in this lucrative market.

Speaking during the firm’s 2022 annual earnings conference held recently, CEO Nicolas Hieronimus estimated that L’Oréal has around 100 million Chinese customers today.

He emphasised the firm’s ambition to increase that number by expanding its business in tier-three and tier-four cities in China.

Pola aims to increase China revenue by 50% on the back of offline expansion​​

Japanese luxury beauty brand Pola is targeting to grow revenue in China by about 50% as it focuses on reinforcing its brick-and-mortar store network.

Parent company Pola Orbis said during its fiscal 2022 earnings conference that it aimed to increase revenue by about 50% year-on-year (YoY) in China. It added that it was planning to 25 more stores in 2023.

It would introduce 10 more counters in department stores, which would take the total number of department store touchpoints to 50 this year.

Kosé China targets 10% sales increase on the back of ‘revenge consumption’​​
Japanese cosmetics firm Kosé is aiming to increase sales in China by 10%, believing consumer consumption will bounce back with the lift of COVID-19 restrictions.

With China on its reopening path this year, the company believes it can capitalise on the recovery to grow its sales in China.

“In China, we have a bullish plan for a 10% YoY increase in sales in anticipation of revenge consumption in 2Q and beyond due to the lifting of the zero-COVID policy​,” CFO Shinichi Mochizuki

Coty aims to ride premiumisation and ‘healthification’ trends to grow China skin care business​​

Beauty major Coty is aiming to grow its skin care business in China on the back of premiumisation and ‘healthification’ trends it has observed in the market.

Speaking during Coty’s second quarter (Q2) earnings conference, CEO Sue Nabi said the firm had “We have robust plans underway to accelerate our skin care business”​ in China.

She highlighted that rise of premiumisation and healthification would be significant for the company as part of efforts to double down on its skin care business, especially in China.

Skin, fragrance, luxury hair categories set to lead growth in China reopening – Estée Lauder CEO​​

Estée Lauder Companies president and CEO Fabrizio Freda has pegged skin care, fragrance, and luxury hair care as key drivers of growth in China as it moves away from last year’s COVID-19 troubles.

Now that the country is reopening, the company was expecting the business to “accelerate on all fronts”​ particularly as brick-and-mortar recovers, said Freda during the firm’s most recent earnings conference.

Going into specific categories, he said that the firm expected a tremendous acceleration in the skin care category.