Rankings change! The world's top 10 cosmetic companies are out

According to "Cosmetics News" statistics, after divesting non-cosmetic business, in 2023, the world's top ten cosmetic companies in order of revenue for L'Oreal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Estee Lauder, LVMH, Beiersdorf, Shiseido, Koti, Natura & Co, Puig. 10 companies revenue overall amounted to 1,088.2 billion dollars. Among them, L'Oreal, Beiersdorf, and Puig all maintained double-digit growth, while Estee Lauder, Shiseido, and Natura&Co saw more serious sales declines. Beiersdorf rose from eighth to sixth, P&G from fourth to third, and Coty from tenth to eighth.

Outside of the top ten, after divesting its non-cosmetics business, Kenvue, the company Johnson & Johnson created in 2022 after splitting its consumer health business, performed well, with full-year sales of $31.8 billion in 2023, as measured by its skin health and beauty business.

In addition, this time it was Puig, a perfume, cosmetics and fashion group from Spain, that entered the world's top 10 cosmetics companies for the first time, with sales rising 19% year-on-year in 2023.

High-end brand competition heats up
Last April, L'Oreal over Shiseido, LVMH and L'Occitane and other potential rivals, to 2.525 billion U.S. dollars "the highest price ever" from the hands of Natura & Co to buy Australia's high-end beauty brand Aesop Aesop, will be included in the management of L'Oreal's upscale cosmetic business unit.

Other major industry events with high acquisition prices include Gucci's parent company Kering Group's acquisition of niche perfume brand Creed from BlackRock's long-term private equity fund and Javier Ferrán's holding fund in June of last year, in a deal valued at an estimated 2 billion euros.

High-end perfume fever continues. Unilever, which is predominantly in the daily chemicals business and less involved in the perfume category, extended its reach into the sector for the first time in November 2023 when its venture capital arm invested in the independent perfume brand The 7 Virtues.The potential of high-end perfume scents is directly reflected in the financial reports of the major companies, and has become a growth engine for groups such as L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, and LVMH in 2023.The company has been a major player in the perfume industry since its inception, and it is now a major player in the perfume industry.

Luxury groups expand beauty business
Digital transformation continues
The past year, but also major companies frequently personnel adjustments, in addition to leadership turnover, "sustainability officer" and other emerging positions also showed a continued rise.

Among them, LVMH is the top ten cosmetic companies to make the most personnel adjustments in the company, and in March formally appointed former L'Oreal China Chief Executive Officer Spurgeon as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Beauty Division, to lead the LVMH Beauty Division. In addition, a number of LVMH brands, including Guerlain, Dior Beauty and Freshfields, have made executive adjustments.

△Sparkhan
In 2023, Kering formally established its beauty division and appointed Raffaella Cornaggia as chief executive officer; Richemont appointed Boet Brinkgreve as chief executive officer of its fine fragrance and beauty division.

In terms of emerging roles, L'Oréal appointed Fabergé as Global Growth Officer; Estée Lauder appointed Nancy Mahon as Chief Sustainability Officer; LVMH appointed Gonzague de Pirey as Chief Omni-Channel and Data Officer at Sephora; and Coty appointed Pierric Duthoit, a former Google executive and director of Meta's French business, as Coty's Chief Digital Officer. Digital transformation and sustainability have become new topics of ongoing concern for large companies.

Surging vs plummeting, sadness and joy are not connected
In 2023, the total revenue of the world's top 10 cosmetic companies, "drastic changes", L'Oreal is still riding high, to maintain double-digit growth, and continue to widen the gap with the latecomers, while some of the other big companies are clearly not a good day. Even if global sales of more than 30 billion yuan, ranked in the top ten for many years, in the unpredictable, highly competitive cosmetics industry, no one can guarantee that "the river and mountain forever". The risk of falling behind, leaving the scene of the bleak, still always playing.

In the past year, Estee Lauder sales fell 10% year-on-year, compared to 2022 revenue decreased by more than 10 billion yuan, second only to L'Oréal, Unilever's "global runner-up" position, was officially taken by Procter & Gamble. 2023, Estee Lauder sales in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific region, are down! Status. However, annual sales of more than 100 billion dollars, so that compared to the later, still has a considerable advantage.

Among the world's top 10 cosmetic companies, Shiseido's sales slipped 8.8%, and its total revenue was overtaken by Beiersdorf to rank seventh. Japanese cosmetic companies in China were generally affected by the nuclear wastewater incident, but sales remained relatively stable, driven by globalization strategies, especially the strategy of stabilizing the local Japanese market. Kao 2023 sales of 1532.6 billion yen, down 1.2% year-on-year; Kose 2023 net sales of 300.4 billion yen, up 3.9% year-on-year; POLA ORBIS Group 2023 net sales of 173.3 billion yen, up 4.2% year-on-year.

Puig, the Spanish perfume, cosmetics and fashion group, relies on its perfume business to achieve quite impressive results. Sales in China surged 27% in the past year, with Charlotte Tilbury and Byredo, a perfume brand to be acquired in 2022, seen as key growth drivers for the group.

While Puig has risen to prominence with its fragrance business, Beiersdorf is quietly building on its core brands. Its core brand, Nivea (which includes lip moisturizer brand Labello), achieved 16.2% year-on-year sales growth on the back of the launch of a successful range of facial care and sun protection products, while Derma's sales surged 24%. The group's multi-year sales deployment in Eastern Europe and Latin America was particularly fruitful, with both regions posting sales increases of more than 20%.

Whether Natura&Co will be able to maintain its position as a global cosmetics giant is a topic of great interest to the industry in 2023. Over the past year, in addition to selling Aesop to L'Oreal at a "super high price", Natura&Co sold The Body Shop to private equity firm Aurelius at a "super low price" of £207 million. Aurelius, and now the group is left with Natura and Avon two brands with greater industry influence. In January this year, according to a number of media reports, Natura & Co is considering divesting Avon's international business, the top ten cosmetics companies, the only group located in non-developed countries, where will it go? Perhaps 2024 will have a tendency to clear answers.

At present, the world's top ten cosmetics companies, France 3, the United States 2, Spain 1, Japan 1, Britain 1, Germany 1, Brazil 1. Among them, Japan and South Korea cosmetic companies are ebbing trend, the European giant development overall stronger than North America. Compared with the international giants, there is still a big gap between Chinese cosmetic companies, but in the turbulent global market, the latter is standing firm and has not yet touched the boundaries of its own potential.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)