L'Oral

Type Traded as Industry Founded Founder(s) Headquarters Area served Key people Products Revenue Operating income Profit Total assets Total equity Employees Subsidiaries Website Socit Anonyme Euronext: OR Personal care 1909 Eugne Schueller Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France Worldwide Jean-Paul Agon (Chairman and CEO), Liliane Bettencourt (Non-executive director and major shareholder) Natalia Streignard Cosmetics and beauty products 19.50 billion (2010)[1] 3.057 billion (2010)[1] 2.240 billion (2010)[1] 24.04 billion (end 2010)[1] 14.87 billion (end 2010)[1] 66,620 (end 2010)[1] The Body Shop loreal.com

The L'Oral Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company.[2] With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France,[3] it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics. Concentrating on hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care, the company is active in the dermatological, tissue engineering and pharmaceutical fields and is the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.[4]

L'Oral is a listed company, but the founder's daughter Liliane Bettencourt and the Swiss food company Nestl each control around 30 percent of the shares and voting rights.[5]

History
In 1907, Eugne Schueller, a young French chemist and future La Cagoule supporter, developed a hair dye formula called Aurale. Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then sold to Parisian hairdressers. On July 31, 1919, Schueller registered his company, the Socit Franaise de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux ("Safe Hair Dye Company of France" literally "French Society of Inoffensive Tinctures for Hair"), the original LOral. The guiding principles of the company, which eventually became LOral, were research and innovation in the field of beauty. In 1920, the small company employed three chemists. By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today.

LOral got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing and beauty products. LOral currently markets over 500 brands and many thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, hair styling, body and skin care, cleansers, makeup and fragrances. The company's products are found in a wide variety of distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hyper - and supermarkets, health/beauty outlets, pharmacies and direct mail. LOral has five worldwide research and development centers: two in France: Aulnay and Chevilly; one in the U.S.: Clark, New Jersey; one in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; and in 2005, one was established in Shanghai, China. A future facility in the US will be in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. From 1988 to 1989, L'Oral controlled the film company Paravision, whose properties included the Filmation and De Laurentiis libraries. StudioCanal acquired the Paravision properties in 1994. LOral purchased Synthlabo in 1973 to pursue its ambitions in the pharmaceutical field. Synthlabo merged with Sanofi in 1999 to become Sanofi-Synthlabo. Sanofi-Synthlabo merged with Aventis in 2004 to become Sanofi-Aventis. On 17 March 2006, L'Oral purchased cosmetics company The Body Shop for 652 million. The company has recently faced discrimination lawsuits in France related to the hiring of spokesmodels and institutional racism. In the UK, L'Oral has faced widespread condemnation from OFCOM regarding truth in their advertising and marketing campaigns concerning the product performance of one of their mascara brands. L'Oral's famous advertising slogan is "Because I'm worth it". In the mid 2000s, this was replaced by "Because you're worth it". In late 2009, the slogan was changed again to "Because we're worth it" following motivation analysis and work into consumer psychology of Dr. Maxim Titorenko. The shift to "we" was made to create stronger consumer involvement in L'Oral philosophy and lifestyle and provide more consumer satisfaction with L'Oral products. L'Oral also owns a Hair and Body products line for kids called L'Oral Kids, the slogan for which is "Because we're worth it too". Protest group Naturewatch states that L'Oral continues to test new ingredients on animals.[6] The company states that no animal testing for finished products has taken place since 1989 and that L'Oreal has invested significantly in alternative methods for chemical safety testing,[7] though they implicitly acknowledge that they continue to perform animal testing of ingredients.[8] Following L'Oral's purchase of The Body Shop, who continue to be against animal testing, The Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick was forced to defend herself against allegations of abandoning her principles over L'Oral's track record on animal testing. Calls were made for shoppers to boycott The Body Shop.[9] L'Oreal has made quite a few statements on claims of animal testing.[10] In 1987, L'Oral and 3 Suisses founded Le Club des Crateurs de Beaut specializing in mail order sales of cosmetic products. February 2011: L'Oreal will have the largest factory in the Jababeka Industrial Park, Cikarang, Indonesia with total investment of US$50 million and it will be ready in October 2011. The production will be absorbed 25 percent by domestic market and the rest will be exported. In 2010

significant growth occurred at Indonesia with 61 percent increase of unit sales or 28 percent of net sales.[11]

Stockholders
As at year end 2010:[1]

Breakdown of share ownership: 30.9% by the Bettencourt family, 29.7% by Nestl, 1.9% treasury shares, 0.7% company savings plan, and the remaining 36.8% is public.

Sales, profits, etc.

In 2003, LOral announced its 19th consecutive year of double-digit growth. Its consolidated sales was 14.029 bn and net profit was 1.653 bn. 96.7% of sales derived from cosmetic activities and 2.5% from dermatological activities. LOral has operations in over 130 countries, employing 50,500 people, 24% of which work in France. 3.3% of consolidated sales is invested in research and development, which accounts for 2,900 of its employees. In 2003, it applied for 515 patents. It operates 42 manufacturing plants throughout the world, which employ 14,000 people.

Cosmetics sales by division breakdown: 54.8% from consumer products at 7.506 bn, 25.1% from luxury products at 3.441 bn, 13.9% from professional products at 1.9 bn, and 5.5% from active cosmetics at 0.749 bn. Cosmetic sales by geographic zone breakdown: 52.7% from Western Europe at 7.221 bn, 27.6% from North America at 3.784 bn, 19.7% from rest of the world at 2.699 bn.

In 2007, LOral was ranked 353 in the Fortune Global 500.[13] The company had earned $2,585 million on sales of $19,811 million. There were 60,850 employees.[13]

Community involvement and awards

In 2008, L'Oral was named Europe's top business employer by The European Student Barometer,[14] a survey conducted by Trendence that covers 20 European countries and incorporates the responses of over 91,000 students. The L'Oral-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science was established to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress. The awards are a result of a partnership between the French cosmetics company L'Oral and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and carry a grant of $100,000 USD for each laureate. [1] The same partnership awards the UNESCO-L'Oral International Fellowships, providing up to $40,000 USD in funding over two years to fifteen young women scientists engaged in exemplary and promising research projects.[15] L'Oral organizes every year the L'Oral Brandstorm, an acknowledged business game for students in 43 countries. The game is related to marketing and has a first prize of $10,000, a second prize of $5,000 and a third prize of $2500.

L'Oral is also involved in the "Look Good...Feel Better"- project which is a Beauty Industry Charity which was formed over 16 years ago to help woman combat the visible side effects of their cancer treatment of which L'Oral is a founder member.

Brands
Brands are generally categorized by their targeted markets, such as the mass, professional, luxury, and active cosmetics markets. The Body Shop and Galderma are directly attached to the head office. L'Oral also owns interests in various activities such as fine chemicals, health, finance, design, advertising, insurance.[29] Professional products

L'Oral Professionnel, including ARTec and Innate Krastase (created by L'Oreal in 1964) Kraskin Esthetics, created by L'Oreal in 2007 and specializing in skin care professionals. Redken 5th Avenue NYC, founded by Paula Kent and Jheri Redding in 1960 and acquired by L'Oreal in 1993. Matrix Essentials, founded by Arnie Miller in 1980 and acquired by L'Oreal in 2000. Mizani, founded in 1991 and bought by L'Oreal in 2001. PureOlogy Research, founded in 2001 and acquired by L'Oreal in 2007. Shu Uemura Art of Hair

Consumer products

LOral Paris Ombrelle Garnier Maybelline SoftSheen-Carson Le Club des Crateurs de Beaut Essie

Head office
L'Oral Group has it's head office in the Centre Eugne Schueller in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris.[37] The building, constructed in the 1970s from brick and steel, replaced the former Monsavon factory, and employees moved into the facility in 1978. 1,400 employees work in the building.[38] The building is often referred to as the "" by the public. In 2005 Nils Klawitter of Der Spiegel said "the building, with its brown glazed faade of windows, is every bit as ugly as its neighborhood." Klawitter added that the facility "gives the impression of a high-security zone" due to the CCTV cameras and security equipment. The world's largest hair salon is located inside the head office building. As of 2005, 90 hairdressers served 300 women, including retirees, students, and unemployed people, per day; the customers are used as test subjects for new hair colours.[39] L'Oral USA has its headquarters in New York City,[40] its New Jersey headquarters is in Berkeley Heights.[41]