L’Oreal the world’s largest cosmetics maker announced that Brazilian sales grew by 21 % in 2010, jumping to 705 million euros.
And they want more..
The French based company aims to double sales in Brazil by 2015 and add 50 million new customers there in the next decade as Latin America’s largest economy expands, said Alexandre Popoff, head of Paris-based L’Oreal’s business in Latin America at Bloomberg.
He also said that “The big part of the growth will be coming from mass-market products.” Brazil is now the company’s seventh-largest market.
Aquisitions are a possibility
The company may also buy a Brazilian brand to expand in the country, where consumers spend more per capita on cosmetics than in any other so-called BRIC nation. L’Oreal plans to use its 1.5 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) cash pile to make acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Agon said last month.
Sustainability
L’Oreal used the World Water Day to announce progress on its sustainable global challenge: reduced levels of water consumption at its two factories in Brazil. In Rio, the drop was 39% from early 2005 until February 2011, while in Sao Paulo, fell by only 24% in 2010, a savings of 93 million liters per year, equivalent to the daily supply of a city 600 thousand inhabitants.
BRAZILGLOBAL.NET 
What do you think about L’Oreal’s decision to refrain from using the direct-sales approach in Brazil? As the country develops, do you this that the means of distribution will evolve?
How is L’Oreal planning on attracting 50 million more customers? What is it doing that’s different from competitors?
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Hi Safyeh,
I think that since L’Oreal has already a strong presence in the traditional retail in Brazil it makes sense to stick to it. Direct-sales would hurt their existing channels of distribution.
Now, about their marketing strategy: my impression is that most of their customers will come from classes D and E, moving up and consuming more beauty products. Do you have any thoughts?
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