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L'Oreal annual report goes metrosexual 04-07-2006
Reuters
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PARIS (Reuters) - Reflecting the changing face of fashion, L'Oreal (OREP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest cosmetics company, for the first time published an annual report on Friday with a male model on its front cover.
"Our market has numerous reservoirs of growth," chairman and outgoing chief executive Lindsay Owen-Jones wrote in an introduction to shareholders.
Cosmetics firms everywhere are focusing on the potential in well-groomed men -- sometimes dubbed "metro-sexuals".
According to L'Oreal -- whose Biotherm brand has targeted products at men since 1985 -- men now account for 10 percent of the total cosmetics market, a figure that is rising rapidly.
"Men today are changing and are no longer bound by their traditional roles ... "Taking care of one's appearance" is no longer a taboo," L'Oreal wrote.
Sales of L'Oreal mens' products grew 17.8 percent in 2005 -- far outstripping total group sales growth of 6.5 percent.
The company estimated more than 20 percent of European men now use skin care products, compared with 4 percent in 1990. In South Korea the figure is over 80 percent, it said.
L'Oreal said it had identified three types of male customers: "Hedonists" -- urban men who are extremely well informed about cosmetics and who "cannot understand why the most technically advanced treatments should be reserved primarily for women"; "Sensible" -- those who care mainly about their health, and "Pragmatists" -- those who want simple and affordable products.
"Driven by skincare, the men's products market is growing rapidly, and ... the rate of expansion could be at least 3 times as fast as the rest of the cosmetics market," it said.
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