Corporate Sales: $5.6 Billion
Beauty Sales (includes laundry care): $4.3 Billion (est.)

Major Brands: Prestige and Mass brands including The History of Whoo, O Hui, Belif, Beyond, Dermalift, CNP, CNP Rx, VDL, Isa Knox, Sooryehan, Code Glokolor, Vonin, Avon, The Saga of Xiu, Nature Collection, Ugly Lovely TheFaceShop, FMGT, Dr. Belmeur, Yehwadam, Elastine, Organist, Reen, Silk Therapy, Veilment, Gentology, The Crème Shop, Boinca.

New Products:

• Dr. Groot Intensive Care Professional Shampoo
• Bamboo Salt Gum Care Whitening Toothpaste
• The History of Woo Cheongidan Pro Serum
• O Hui Age Recovery Gift Set
• Isa Knox LXNEW Clean
• Boosters
• Platinum product lines

Comments: In 2023, LGH&H (LG Household & Health Care) saw $4.3 billion in sales, a decrease of about 2% over the previous year, as the company reported declines across all segments. Beauty sales fell 12.3%, due to weak demand in China and duty-free stores. However, sales continued to rise in domestic channels.

In the fourth quarter, beauty sales reportedly dropped by 23.7% compared to the previous year.

The company’s reduced demand in China primarily affected the beauty segment, causing a double-digit decrease in sales in China and DFS.

In the past year, online sales in the Health & Beauty segment experienced growth due to increased demand from both domestic consumers and foreign tourists.

Several brands pulled ahead though. Key brands such as Physiogel and Euthymol reported steady growth, helping to achieve strong sales growth in online channels. Despite improvements in the product mix, the operating profit fell slightly.

In March 2024, LGH&H appointed the company’s first female CEO of the Americas division. Hyeyoung Moon oversees LG H&H USA, Avon, and Boinca. She is working to develop strategies that leverage the strength of all LG H&H America’s businesses and create synergies that will make them stronger and more competitive. Much of this expansion is planned through Avon.

At the same time, the company promoted Liza Maldonado to the Head of Direct Selling, for the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. Before the promotion, Maldonado led Avon Puerto Rico and Caribbean as the General Manager. Now she aims to align business trends and customer needs while developing and growing the Avon business.

In March 2024, Avon and LGH&H USA partnered with the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), donating $2.4 million worth of products to support response efforts to major disasters.

The donated products include essential beauty and personal care items such as soap, shampoo, body lotion, skincare products, fragrances, makeup, and more. GEM will distribute these products to individuals and communities in need.

Looking Ahead:

In 2024, LGH&H said it will strengthen the core competitiveness of the group’s business, and that full-year 2024 will be a growth inflection point for the group by driving growth in the domestic market, building a robust China business, and expanding non-China overseas business.

Moving forward, LG CEO Jung Ae Lee hopes to strengthen and sustain overseas business expansions. That means improving the brand portfolio, expanding distribution in China, and expanding in the U.S.
To strengthen its presence in North America, LG is focused on luxury beauty brands such as Whoo, Belif, CNP, and The Face Shop as well as Dr. Groot and Physiogel in mass markets.

Corporate Sales: $5.9 billion
Beauty Sales: $4 billion

Major Products/Brands: Cosmetics, hair care and skincare including The History of Whoo, O Hui, SU:M37, Belif, Beyond, Dermalift, CNP, CNP Rx, VDL, Isa Knox, Sooryehan, Code Glokolor, Vonin, Carezone, The Saga of Xiu, Nature Collection, TheFaceShop, FMGT, Dr. Belmeur, Yehwadam, Elastine, Organist, Reen, Silk Therapy, Veilment, Gentology, The Crème Shop.

New Products: Sum 37Ëš Micro-Active Line, The Crème Shop Hello Kitty & BT21 Printed Essence Sheet Mask Collection, Crème Summer Beauty Box, Glint Dewy Moon Natural Glow Highlighter Stick, The History of Whoo Gongjinhyang Neck and Face Repair Sleeping Repair Mask.

Financial Summary:

In fiscal 2022, due to a challenging business environment and sluggish consumption in both the domestic and global market due to worldwide economic recession, as well as beauty suffering from sales loss across travel retail and China onshore business, LG H&H sales decreased 11.2% year-over-year to $5.9 billion.

Beauty business sales, which include skincare, makeup and others, decreased 27.7% yoy to $4 billion. Based on strong brand awareness, Whoo entered and topped the rankings on new fast-growing e-commerce platforms such as TikTok and Kuaishou.

However, as the unstable market conditions continued throughout the year, Beauty’s overall performance, including China onshore business and travel retail, was greatly affected by the rapid spread of Covid-19 cases in China due to the changes in the zero-Covid policy. Meanwhile, in the domestic market, various attempts were made to enrich brand assets for long-term performance even under an uncertain macro environment. O HUI presented ‘The First Maison’ VR exhibition, which captures the identity of ‘The First’ line, and Belif ran an offline pop-up event that incorporated ‘Belif Universe,’ the brand’s identity and story, to communicate with consumers across channels.

Meanwhile, Home Care & Daily Beauty (HDB) business sales increased 7.4% yoy to $1.5 billion. An unfavorable operating environment persisted for HDB as the rise in inflation slowed consumption and consumers became more price sensitive. Improving profitability was difficult due to high price levels, high exchange rates and high wages, but HDB continued to invest in premium brand marketing. In particular, Dr. Groot and Physiogel continued to strengthen brand loyalty by increasing consumer engagement through digital media channel activation. HDB also expanded its production portfolio. Physiogel unlocked new business opportunities in the beauty category following the successful launch of ‘Physiogel Dailimune Defense Cushion’ that reported solid performance from home shopping channels at year end.

For the first quarter of 2023, sales increased 2.4% yoy. Beauty and HDB sales grew 0.3% yoy and 1.9% yoy, respectively. Beauty sales were flat yoy due to delayed consumption recovery in China. In fact, the China onshore business reported a double-digit drop in sales. Meanwhile, HDB sales growth was led by strong sales performances of Oral Care (Perioe, Euthymol) and Physiogel in Daily Beauty.

In March 2023, LG H&H Americas, the North American division of the company, announced two new leadership appointments: Hyeyoung Moon as CEO, LG H&H Americas, and Liza Maldonado as Head of Direct Selling for the U.S., Puerto Rico & Caribbean. Moon will oversee all of LG H&H Americas’ business which includes LG H&H USA, Avon and Boinca.

Maldonado will now lead the U.S. Avon field sales organization as the head of direct selling for the U.S., Puerto Rico and Caribbean. This announcement marked the first time in history LG H&H Americas named two women in leadership roles.

Looking Ahead:

In Q2 2023, LG H&H reported $1.4 billion in sales, a decline of 3.0% year-over-year, mainly due to Beauty’s 8% yoy decline, while HDB sales grew slightly yoy. Despite positive growth in domestic channels, Beauty sales decreased due to China’s lagging consumption recovery. New product launches included O HUI Ultimate Fit Jean Cushion and Glint highlighter ‘Peach Moon.’ Whoo introduced Hwanyu Line renewal and Sum37° presented ‘Water-full’ Line renewal. HDB sales slightly increased due to Daily Beauty and online channel growth. Daily Beauty growth was driven by strong performance of Premium brands Physiogel and Euthymol.

Corporate Sales: $6.8 billion
Beauty Sales: $4.8 billion

Major Products/Brands: Cosmetics, hair care and skincare including The History of Whoo, O Hui, SU:M37, Belif, Beyond, Dermalift, CNP, CNP Rx, VDL, Isa Knox, Sooryehan, Code Glokolor, Vonin, Carezone, The Saga of Xiu, Nature Collection, TheFaceShop, FMGT, Dr. Belmeur, Yehwadam, Elastine, Organist, Reen, Silk Therapy, Veilment, Gentology.

New Products: The Créme Shop (acquisition), Freshian vegan cosmetics.

Financial Summary:

In fiscal 2021, despite uncertainties surrounding economic recovery due to continued emergence of new Covid variants and an unstable business environment, LG H&H sales, operating profit, and net profit set record highs surpassing pre-Covid levels. The company reported $6.8 billion in sales, up 3.1% year over year.

Beauty business sales decreased 0.4% YOY to $3.7 billion. Luxury brands continued solid performance supported by strong brand power. In China, the company’s customer base widened due to active expansion into new channels other than Tmall, JD or VIP. Meanwhile, the ‘Whoo’ brand reinforced its ultra-high-end lineup with new products to further strengthen its luxury positioning in the global beauty market.

HDB business sales—which include hair care, oral care, skincare, aromatics and more—increased 9.9% YOY to $1.8 billion. Premium brands of strategically grown Daily Beauty, such as ‘Rien Dr. Groot’, ‘Bamboo Salt Himalaya Pink Salt’ and ‘Physiogel’ led the growth of the business. As ESG became a mega-trend for companies, environmental concerns were factored into the product development stage and led to the launch of paper-packaged shampoo bars and powder toothpaste.

2021/2022 Highlights:

In September 2021, LG Household & Healthcare purchased a 56% stake in Boinca, a California-based vegan hair dye manufacturer, for $100 million. Boinca owns high-end hair color dye brand Arctic Fox, which is popular among young customers thanks to its successful social media marketing and its opposition to animal testing. The purchase is intended to boost LG’s overseas hair care business and strengthen its competitiveness in the premium hair care product market.

For the first quarter of 2022, sales decreased 19.2% year-over-year. Beauty struggled to grow due to unfavorable influence from China. After the political, social and economic controls for the preparations for the Olympics in January and February, China’s economy faced the worst downward pressure in years due to the Zero-Covid policy which began in March. As a result, sales and profits of luxury cosmetics fell dramatically as the China onshore business and travel retail channels were affected. The market contraction due to the strengthened lockdown measures in China is still continuing.

In order to respond to the rapidly changing consumer needs in a difficult market environment, major luxury brands such as ‘Whoo,’ ‘Sum,’ ‘O HUI,’ ‘belif’ and ‘CNP’ continued to launch new products in early 2022.

In March 2022, the company acquired a majority stake in Los Angeles-based beauty brand The Crème Shop—known for its whimsical and vibrant skincare, makeup, and beauty accessories that appeal to a diverse group of consumers and possess a strong following among Gen Z and Millennials. By claiming a majority stake in The Crème Shop, LG H&H plans to further expand in the beauty and personal care industry and solidify its presence in the North American market while growing The Crème Shop into a global brand.

In May 2022, LG H&H opened a new research and development (R&D) center in Hokkaido, Japan, focusing on microbiome beauty products. The company said Hokkaido provides the optimal environment for conducting research on useful strains of microbiomes and is equipped with infrastructure for advanced research and production of base ingredients for related products. The company said it plans to establish a natural fermentation production system and develop various microbiome ingredients at the new center.

In July 2022, LG H&H signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shopee, a leading e-commerce online shopping platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, to accelerate its growth in the premium beauty and personal care categories in five key markets comprising Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. The partnership will be led by Sean Lee, head of the overseas business division at LG H&H and Chris Feng, group president at Sea. Both companies will also work together and bring more brands under LG H&H onto Shopee, and identify new collaboration opportunities in areas such as marketing and exclusive product launches.

Looking Ahead:

In Q2 2022, LG H&H reported 1.9 tr won in sales, a decline of 7.9% year over year, however compared with the difficulty of Q1, 2Q sales increased 13.2% quarter-over-quarter, largely due to the growth of Beauty which grew 21.9% qoq in sales.

Corporate Sales: $7.2 billion
Beauty Sales: $5.1 billion

Major Products/Brands: Cosmetics, hair care and skin care including The History of Whoo, O Hui, SU:M37, Belif, Beyond, Dermalift, CNP, CNP Rx, VDL, Isa Knox, Sooryehan, Code Glokolor, Vonin, Carezone, The Saga of Xiu, Nature Collection, TheFaceShop, FMGT, Dr. Belmeur, Yehwadam, Elastine, Organist, Reen, Silk Therapy, Veilment, Gentology

New Products: Physiogel hand cream, mist, toner and lip balm

Comments: In 2020, LG Household & Health Care laid a foundation to take the leap as a global player by expanding its cosmetics business in China and strengthening its business bases in the North American market.

Despite economic activities contracting globally due to stringent lockdown measures caused by Covid-19, the company achieved the No.1 market position in all three businesses (beauty, home care and non-alcoholic beverages) in South Korea—a first for the company. Gains, however, were uneven as sales of beauty products fell, while sales of home care and personal products increased.

Last year marked the first full year that The Avon Company was under the control of LG H&H. In 2019, LG agreed to purchase what was then known as New Avon from Cerberus Capital Management for $125 million.

Despite the addition of Avon, beauty product sales still fell 6.1% last year, as the cosmetics market was unable to recover from the effects of Covid-19. But there were signs of recovery. In the fourth quarter, duty-free sales of luxury brands managed a slight gain year-on-year. More good news came from China, as Q4 sales soared 41% and ended 2020 with a 21% gain. The best performing beauty brand was The First, which posted a 46% increase in 2020.

Sales of home and personal care products rose nearly 26% last year. LG credited a focus on differentiated premium brands such as Dr. Groot hair care and Veilment skin care. The Reen hair care brand posted a 53% increase in sales and Veilment’s sales rose 24%. The business also benefited from the fast-growing e-commerce market by expanding online brand stores, strengthening online marketing and actively promoting sales via e-commerce. The Physiogel line of hand cream, mist, toner and lip balm had a strong debut in Korea. Now, LG is expanding the brand into China, Japan and the U.S. Within China, premium brands such as Yungo and Dr. Groot drove sales growth.

2021 Highlights

For the first quarter of 2021, sales rose 7.4% and beauty sales returned to growth for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19, spurred by continued growth of overseas business based on strong customer preference for LG’s luxury brands.

In September 2021, LG H&H purchased a 56% stake in Boinca, a California-based vegan hair dye manufacturer, for $100 million. The purchase is intended to boost LG’s overseas hair care business and strengthen its competitiveness in the premium hair care product market. Boinca owns high-end hair color dye brand Arctic Fox, which is popular among young customers thanks to its successful social media marketing and its opposition to animal testing.Also, in September, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) slapped a fine of $262,400 on LG Household & Healthcare. The company was accused of abusing its power over franchise branches of The Face Shop by failing to keep commitments about discount events. According to the FTC, during discount events held between March 2012 and 2016, LG Household & Healthcare promised to compensate The Face Shop Stores for its products sold at steep discounts. According to the FTC, LG Household & Healthcare paid just half of what it promised.