Shine comes off L’Oreal’s growth plans
FRENCH cosmetics maker L’Oreal said yesterday its like-for-like sales growth slowed to 4.1 per cent in the third quarter, due to weakness in North America and a slowdown in Mexico.
L’Oreal missed the average analyst estimate for sales growth of five per cent and compared with 5.2 per cent growth in the second quarter and
5.5 per cent in the first. The company reported sales of €5.48bn (£4.69bn) in the three months to the end of September.
Like-for-like sales growth in North America slowed to 0.6 per cent in the quarter from 5.4 per cent in the first half of the year.
“In North America, consumer products division sales were affected by market slowdown and inventory reductions in distribution that exceeded our expectations,” chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said in a statement yesterday.
Growth in Latin America slowed to 8.5 per cent.