The top beauty company grew its sales 2.3% to reach $28.60 billion worldwide, according to a ranking by WWD. Unilever was No. 2 at $20.52, while Proctor & Gamble slid in at No. 3 despite a 12.5% drop in sales.
To put the numbers into context, retail sales of licensed health and beauty products in the U.S./Canada stayed flat at 0.1% growth in 2016 to reach almost $7.7 billion, according to TLL. The cosmetics/nail polish/other sub-segment was the only positive sector, growing 1.6%. Fragrance sales declined 1.5%, while hair accessories remained flat.
The top players benefited from the overall global growth in the makeup segment, although they suffered hits within their fragrance divisions. Most got boosts through sales and/or aquisitions; amongst some of the most notable business moves, L’Oreal bought It Cosmetics for $1.2 billion, Unilever bought subscription-based Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion, and P&G sold 41 beauty brands to Coty for $11.6 billion.
Data Source: WWD | ||||||
(Figures in Billions) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Company | Retail Sales, 2016 | Retail Sales, 2015 | Change in Sales, 2015–2016 | ||
1 | L’Oreal | $28.60 | $27.96 | 2.3% | ||
2 | Unilever | $20.52 | $20.42 | 0.5% | ||
3 | Procter & Gamble | $15.40 | $17.60 | -12.5% | ||
4 | Estée Lauder | $11.40 | $11.10 | 2.7% | ||
5 | Shiseido | $7.69 | $7.87 | -2.3% | ||
6 | Beiersdorf | $5.93 | $5.87 | 1.1% | ||
7 | AmorePacific Group | $5.58 | $4.72 | 18.2% | ||
8 | Kao Corp. | $5.53 | $5.59 | -1.1% | ||
9 | LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton | $5.48 | $5.17 | 6.0% | ||
10 | Coty | $5.40 | $4.28 | 26.2% |