CLICHY, France — “La vie est belle,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls concluded in front of L’Oréal employees and journalists during his visit to the company’s headquarters in Paris’ northern suburbs on Monday morning.
Valls was visiting to laud the firm on its dedication to French savoir-faire as he continues struggling to boost his country’s business confidence and the international competitiveness of French industry.
His choice of closing words was fitting — Lancôme’s fragrance by that name is now the women’s bestseller in France and across Europe, and the brand overall ranks number one in China in its distribution channel, according to the company.
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“This visit is the opportunity to salute the great French companies, of which L’Oréal is one,” Valls said.
“These great brands are often the image and the face of France,” he said, praising the group’s entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to corporate social responsibility as key to its ongoing success.
“We need to celebrate French genius,” he continued. “France is an attractive country … France must renew its confidence in itself like your company believes in itself.”
While L’Oréal continues working to conquer a billion new consumers over the next 10 years, mainly through penetrating new markets, it remains dedicated to its French roots, particularly when it comes to manufacturing, research and development.
“We sometimes think of beauty as a profession that is quintessentially French, but among the top eight beauty companies in the world, only one is French,” the company’s chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Paul Agon pointed out.
L’Oréal has a 12 percent share of the global beauty market, he said.
While only 9 percent of its revenues stem from domestic sales, some 27 percent of company production is based in France and 72 percent of its research and innovation is performed here via 12 factories and 10 R&D facilities, Agon said.
President of selective divisions Nicolas Hieronimus highlighted that 65 percent of the L’Oréal Luxe division’s products are made in France, which he said is still seen as a guarantee of luxury internationally.
Hieronimus noted the importance of its suppliers, not just L’Oréal’s internal know-how, in perpetuating French savoir-faire in the luxury segment, like Verreries Brosse, which made the bottle for La vie est belle.
“It is French savoir-faire that allows [us] to shine internationally,” he said.