Interview with Brigitte Liberman, President Active Cosmetics Division

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• published: 14 Mar 2017
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*Subtitles available for better accessibility.* Discover more about L'Oréal's Active Cosmetics Division in 2016: http://www.loreal-finance.com/eng/annual-report-2016/active-cosmetics Explore the full 2016 L'Oréal Annual Report http://www.loreal-finance.com/eng/annual-report-2016 ©Sixtine Transcript Interview with Brigitte Liberman, President Active Cosmetics Division - How would you sum up the year for the Active Cosmetics Division? With like-for-like growth of +5.7%, the Active Cosmetics Division once again outperformed its market, confirmed its leadership, and continued to expand the category worldwide. All the Zones recorded growth. Latin America, Brazil and the Africa, Middle East Zone posted double-digit growth. North America was a top growth contributor, driven by the performance of SkinCeuticals, La Roche-Posay and Vichy. Our two emblematic medicalised skincare brands expanded strongly: • La Roche-Posay posted double-digit growth for the seventh year running. • SkinCeuticals has become the number 1 US medical aesthetic skincare brand worldwide. And finally, e-commerce ramped up sales in 2016 with growth close to +40%. These results confirm the success of the Division's positioning and brand portfolio in the health and beauty field, and the ever-growing potential of dermocosmetics. - What were the highlights in 2016? We believe that "Health is the future of beauty", and this vision is reflected in our product innovations, in our approach to digital services and in our partnership initiatives with healthcare professionals. I would like to mention three highlights that illustrate this strategy and our commitment: Slow Âge by Vichy, a new generation of everyday anti-ageing skincare. For Vichy, this is a pre-emptive move into the scientific field of the exposome, which takes into account all the different factors — and particularly environmental conditions — that can have an impact on skin ageing. The second great innovation is an important educational tool: the La Roche-Posay My UV Patch, which is connected to an app that measures individual exposure to UV rays. It helps you to adapt your behaviour to protect against the negative effects of sun exposure. This year, the My UV Patch was distributed free of charge in 16 countries. And finally, our partnership with dermatologists is crucially important for developing dermocosmetics expertise. This year, the second SkinAlliance Forum in Paris brought together 130 dermatologists key opinion leaders from 39 countries. The two-day event allowed L’Oréal researchers and international scientists to exchange views on research and our expertise in dermocosmetics. - What are the Division’s major prospects? In my view, the major challenges are: • Continuing to invent and develop our products and services in partnership with dermatologists. • Using digital technologies to maximise our personalised relationship with our consumer communities. • And strengthening our brand portfolio to win new consumers. This is the reason underlying our recent acquisition of three American brands — CeraVe, AcneFree and Ambi — which meet the growing demand for active skincare products at affordable prices. As a result, in a solid dermocosmetic environment, we are convinced that “adding Health to Beauty” will be again a strong growth driver for our Division.