L’Oréal CEO Sees Beauty Market Rising to €400 Billion by 2030
Five Minutes With Nicholas Hieronimus on the future of beauty, the difficulty in creating products that are both green and effective and why he sometimes calls his rivals.
Nicolas Hieronimus
Source: BloombergA self-proclaimed “beauty junkie,” Nicholas Hieronimus has been at L’Oréal SA for nearly four decades. In that time, the beauty industry has changed dramatically. E-commerce and social networks have lowered the barrier to entry for startups, dermatological division have become a focus and more men are using beauty products. He predicts that beauty will be a market close to €400 billion ($426.8 billion) by 2030 from €270 billion now. He sees growth coming from the rise of middle classes as well people wanting premium products with higher price tags and a widening consumer base beyond women and young people.
Hieronimus makes a point of sampling all the products L’Oréal makes. “I try my products, I try the competition just to make sure we have the best and sometimes we see an interesting competitive product that we have to step up to,” he said. Hieronimus spoke in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Francine Lacqua about other ways he’s managing the world’s largest beauty company. (Questions and responses have been edited and condensed.)