Beauty Sales: $2.7 Billion

Major Products/Brands: Skincare, Bath & Body, Haircare, Fragrance, and Men’s Care, under 8 premium brands including L’Occitane en Provence, Elemis, Sol de Janeiro, Erborian, L’Occitane au Brésil, LimeLife by Alcone, Grown Alchemist, Melvita, and Dr. Vranjes Firenze (acquisition).

New Products:

• Sol de Janeiro Delicia Drench Body Butter
• Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream
• L’Occitane en Provence Artichoke Body Scrub
• L’Occitane en Provence Almond Shower Oil
• Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream SPF 30

Comments: The L’Occitane Group, a collection of eight premium beauty and wellness brands, each distinct, had an action-packed 2023—and, as a result, made it onto Beauty Packaging’s Top 20 list this year. Net sales grew a whopping 24%, to exceed $2.7 billion. The success was driven by the strong performance of Sol de Janeiro and the continued success of L’Occitane en Provence. The Group has a global presence in 90 countries, with more than 3,000 retail locations, over 1,300 own stores, and more than 9,000 employees.

During the year, the company continued its marketing spend in key markets and channels to sustain its brands’ sales growth, capture new premiumization trends, and solidify its position as “a competitive multi-brand, generationally appealing and geographically balanced group, delivering against the triple bottom line—people, planet and profit.”

Increased contributions from Sol de Janeiro led the “wholesale and others” channel, to become the company’s largest channel. It contributed nearly 40% of total net sales and grew by 45.7% at constant rates in FY2024. Meanwhile, online channels posted 25.2% growth at constant rates, mainly driven by Sol de Janeiro and Elemis, as well as L’Occitane en Provence’s newly launched marketplace channel on Douyin in China. Retail sales globally grew 3% at constant rates, mostly due to the “relative improvement” of the retail environment in China compared to FY2023.

2023-2024 Highlights:

By brand, L’Occitane en Provence underperformed compared to the company’s other brands in terms of global growth and profitability, “despite receiving the largest portion of the marketing budget to capture growth opportunities and maintain market shares in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Sol de Janeiro continued to perform strongly, growing 167% at constant rates in FY2024 and delivering triple-digit growth across all geographies. The brand’s performance was driven by the ongoing success of the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, blockbuster launches in the fragrance mist category, and the release of limited collections that established the brand’s year-round appeal. Sol de Janeiro also focused on expanding its distribution channels and entering new product categories to develop a full-body regimen.

Elemis continued to focus on its premiumization strategy while also accelerating marketing expenditures to drive expansion in all channels and build a foundation for sustainable growth. Sales for the brand in FY2024 were flat following marked sales declines in the UK and U.S. in FY2024 Q4, a result that was expected as part of the premiumization strategy. Despite the slower overall sales momentum, successful holiday campaigns, stepped-up marketing investments and new product launches placed Elemis among the top 5 face care brands in the UK and the top 15 face care brands in the U.S., with No. 1 and No. 2 earned media value rankings respectively in these two markets. Further, Elemis saw double-digit growth in sales as it accelerated marketing investments on social media channels, alongside KOL livestreaming via Douyin.

In January 2024, L’Occitane Group acquired Italian luxury home fragrance brand Dr. Vranjes Firenze, described as “another step in its strategy to build a geographically balanced portfolio of premium beauty and fragrance brands.”

In FY2024, the company became a certified B Corporation, building on its commitments to empower communities, preserving biodiversity, and mitigating climate change. The company also “set the ambition” to pay each team member worldwide a living wage by FY2026. Furthermore, the Group continued to work on reducing its carbon footprint and plastic pollution, promoting a circular economy for plastics, and strengthening its collaboration with suppliers to ensure responsible social and environmental impact management throughout its value chain. Regarding biodiversity, the Group is progressing toward the traceability of plant-based raw materials. Currently, 81% of plants in L’Occitane en Provence and Melvita’s raw materials are traceable to the plant’s country of origin with the target to reach 90% by FY2026.

Looking Ahead:

To position the company for future growth and expansion, it has evolved its leadership. As of 1 April 2024, Laurent Marteau, former Managing Director, succeeded André J. Hoffmann as CEO. Marteau said, “Looking ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic about our performance in FY2025. However, the company’s additional investments in marketing, IT and supply infrastructure and people and planet investments will continue to weigh on our profit margins in the months and years ahead. These investments remain necessary for each of our brands to grow as competition in the global skincare and cosmetics industry intensifies.”

Also in April 2024, the Board of L’Occitane International S.A. received a proposal from L’Occitane Groupe S.A., the controlling shareholder of L’Occitane International S.A.—and ultimately controlled by its billionaire chairman Reinold Geiger—expressing “its intention to acquire all issued and outstanding stock in L’Occitane International S.A. that Geiger does not already own, to delist the entity from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and fully privatize the group.” The buyout deal is said to be worth about $7 Billion.

At press time, Laurent Marteau, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, resigned from the company.