Fabrice Megarbane, the president of L’Oreal North Asia Zone and CEO of L’Oreal China, has expressed L’Oreal’s confidence and optimism towards China’s short and long-term economic prospects. According to Megarbane, L’Oreal has already identified potential opportunities in the market since China’s optimization of COVID response, which has made them even more bullish about China’s economic outlook.
Despite the impact of COVID-19, L’Oreal remains positive about the beauty market rebound in China. From the first week of February, consumer traffic and purchases have shown positive signs, and L’Oreal expects a progressive rebound from Q2, with consumer enthusiasm bouncing back in all categories.
L’Oreal entered the Chinese market in 1997 and has continued to outperform the market worldwide and in China. Megarbane emphasized that L’Oreal is entering a new era of innovation-driven and high-quality development in China, which is in line with China’s economic development roadmap.
As new consumer potential continues to emerge, L’Oreal expects to reach an additional 100 million Chinese consumers by 2030. Megarbane called China “the new investment landmark” for L’Oreal and stressed that the company has been continuously investing in China for the past 25 years and will continue to do so in the future.
L’Oreal has one research-and-innovation center and two plants in China, with the first global self-built intelligent fulfillment center and clean workshop. Megarbane noted that China has a unique ecosystem that is advanced in digital and technology and becomes the origin of open innovation for L’Oreal. In the mid-and-long term, China is not only a growth engine for L’Oreal Group but has a strategic position in terms of innovation (digital + beauty tech), sustainability, and talent.
In 2022, L’Oreal set up its first investment company at country/market level in China, aiming to cooperate with more partners in China to explore more potential innovative companies, nurture forward-looking innovations and promote their commercialization.
Megarbane also noted that China is building a unified domestic market that is highly efficient, fair, and open, and L’Oreal was benefiting a lot from it. He said that “The pace of reform is getting faster, the efficiency of implementation is getting higher, the door of China’s opening-up is becoming wider and the business environment is getting better, making our confidence in the Chinese market stronger.”