aMuch of the tech industry gathered in Las Vegas for the annual consumer technology trade show CES earlier this month, but the CEO of beauty giant L Some participants may have been surprised by the current keynote speech. “Aurial.
But for Nicholas Hieronymus, it made perfect sense for him to give the speech. “We are a technology company,” says the L'Oréal CEO. “We're a beauty company, but we're also a technology company.”
L'Oréal has been participating in the event for 10 years and has won the CES Innovation Award nine times. “Every year we prove that technology has the ability to augment the power of beauty products and impact people's daily lives,” he told TIME. “We're here to change people's lives with beauty products, and technology is the way we do that.”
Since 2016, the company has launched its own brands Lancôme's Hapta (an electric lipstick applicator designed to help people with limited manual dexterity) and Shu Uemura's 3D Shu:Brow (which “prints” eyebrows onto the face). The company has announced products such as “devices for the purpose of Taking on Dyson with his new AirLight Pro hair dryer, Hieronymus said it moisturizes hair by 30% more, saves him 30% of energy and dries his hair 30% faster than traditional hair dryers. I am. On the day of the keynote, L'Oréal also announced that it would acquire Josa, a Swiss startup focused on water fractionation through products such as ultra-efficient showerheads.
Hieronymus spoke with TIME on January 10, the day after his keynote address, to discuss the company's strategy, sustainability plans and market outlook.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Your speech as the first beauty CEO to deliver a CES keynote was historic. Do you think L’Oréal is a technology company?
I think of L'Oréal as a beauty technology company, and that's what we wanted to represent here.To state that we are a leader in beauty technology and to demonstrate the complementarity of technology with our core business of creating beauty that makes both men and women more beautiful. [and] Feel better about yourself. Being given the opportunity to open CES this year and giving this keynote was a reward for all the years of seeds we've been planting here at CES and in the entire technology community. Numerous awarded and announced projects [at CES] This is the result of collaboration with some of these startups. It is also our motto that L'Oréal has continued to hold on to for his 115 years: always on the cutting edge of new things, leveraging new science and new technology to invent new products. It was also a great opportunity to demonstrate that. They envision a future of beauty, and this future is clearly enhanced by technology. And that was the theme of the keynote, demonstrating that the future of beauty must be more inclusive, more sustainable, and more personalized. And that's one of the areas where technology has the greatest power: the ability to tailor products and recommendations to each and every person. This was a great demonstration of L'Oréal's ability to innovate and its commitment to diversity.
You talked about various innovative beauty products such as AirLight Pro and demonstrated the Beauty Genius tool. We have been running technology incubators for over 10 years. What is your strategy and how do you decide which areas you want to focus on?
We are very opportunistic. Our company always focuses on solving consumers' problems and improving their satisfaction with our products. The choices we make are always a collection of problems, needs, and opportunities to increase consumer or professional satisfaction on the one hand. Because we often work with stylists and hairdressers. On the one hand, the technology that we believe will enable us to do so. Take the new AirLight Pro hair dryer as an example, and we have one of the most common beauty gestures in the world. I think 75% of women use hair dryers. Hair is getting longer and more varied. expectations are becoming increasingly important and difficult to meet. We know everyone has been using hair dryers forever, but hair dryers haven't stayed the same forever. The same mechanism is always used in hot rods, which consumes a lot of energy and can overheat the hair and even cause damage. In other words, there was a need and there was an opportunity. And on the other hand, I met her, Zuvi, which is an amazing Chinese startup. They developed a product called Halo that invented this technology. [that uses] It uses infrared rays and wind to dry your hair in a gentler, energy-saving mode. However, this device was not as efficient as it was simple. So when we work with stylists, we call them and say, “How can we together create a hair dryer that's more sustainable, more efficient, more effective, and the best in the world?'' I wonder?” he said. Is it gentle on your hair? ” And we worked with scientists to collect a huge amount of data. So the combination of Zuvi's engineers, our scientists, and our stylists has allowed us to keep working and create amazing products.
And for all the other projects we've introduced, whether it's Meta Profiler for Skin Care Diagnostics or Color Sonic. [for at-home hair coloring]–It's always the same story. Where is the demand? Where are the opportunities? Where are the problems we need to solve? Then we find startups and engineers who can help us design products that make it happen.
You were also quite greedy. Last year we had Aesop and recently we had Josa. Do you think L'Oréal is in acquisition mode now?
I'm not particularly in acquisition mode. We're always looking at what's out there. Because we are a world leader, we have to realize that beauty companies that want to sell come to us. And another thing is that out of the 37 international brands managed by L'Oréal, only 2.5 of his brands were created by L'Oréal. L'Oréal Paris, L'Oréal Professionnel, that's half. And then there's Kerastase. Other companies such as Lancôme, Helena Rubinstein, Servais, La Roche Posay, and Redken were all acquisitions. Therefore, we always have the same strategy. We are building on organic growth and strengthening our brand with innovation developed by our 4,000 researchers and his £1 billion research institute. But whenever we see a brand or technology that complements what we already have, in terms of pricing, consumer profile, and even product variety, that was the case with Aesop. Or take what the technology has — which is the case with Josa — and try to leverage its global footprint to maximize its potential. We use laboratories to improve our formulations when necessary. That's how we build success.
When we acquired CeraVe, we didn't have a so-called mass market medical brand that was prescribed by dermatologists, but sold at a price point that was basically affordable to everyone. It had been. We acquired this brand seven years ago. [making revenue of around] 150 million dollars. And now it's over $2 billion. That's because of both our global reach and our ability to attract and market to consumers. That is the history of L'Oreal. That's what we're trying to do with Aesop.
At Gjosa, we didn't buy to make a big profit: The idea. [is] We are determined to use this amazing technology that requires 69% less water to rinse hair in the salon, and hopefully tomorrow we can save a lot of water at home too. And we know that if we really want to accelerate the spread of this object, which is now perfected in terms of takeoff technology but needs to be adapted to all countries, we need to own it. . Because we know that we have a really significant impact on water scarcity, which is one of the biggest environmental challenges we have to face. We made this acquisition not to do business, but to do good and stay true to our sense of purpose: creating beauty that moves the world.
Can you tell us more about your company's sustainability strategy?
We have set out to first reduce the impact of our products and then make a positive contribution. In 2009, we began research to change the formulation. [launched] Initial plan to reduce impact. We had made a commitment to reduce CO2 emissions in Scope 1 and 2. Between 2015 and 2020, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by around 90%, while our intensity increased by almost 40%. Growth due to CO2 emissions.
Since 2020, we have launched our second major program called “L'Oréal for the Future'' with a number of commitments, including powering 100% of our sites with green energy by 2025. The percentage is approaching 70%. For example, all of our North American sites are powered by carbon-neutral energy.We are reducing plastic: we are committed to transitioning to 100% PCR plastic [and] We already use more than 70% PET plastic.
We are transitioning all our formulations to bio-based ingredients and our goal is to reach 95% by 2030.Our research question [team] The idea is to achieve exactly the same level of performance using bio-based raw materials. Things are going well. One of our first green ingredient innovations is called Proxylan, which is a great skin care ingredient that works on skin firmness and density.
We just submitted a science-based goal for full carbon neutrality, including Scope 3. So it's even more difficult now because it's not just about us, it's about our entire ecosystem. So we need to push suppliers, carriers, and even consumers. [through products like Gjosa and AirLight Pro] To make it more environmentally friendly. [Our impact is factored into] A bonus for everyone, including me. It is reflected in all financial KPIs and personal compensation.
There's a theory about lipstick buying and what it tells us about economics. You'll have a front row seat to see how consumers spend on these affordable luxuries. What does that say about where the economy is heading?
last [few] Although the last few years have not been the greatest or most peaceful years in human history, we see that the beauty market continues to thrive. [The past] Despite the crisis, inflation and all the gloom and sometimes doom that has hit the world this year, the beauty market is growing, growing by 9% at the end of September. So it was one of the best years. And although it slowed down a bit in the second half, the market is visible. [last] This year has been a very dynamic situation. That's just how lipstick sometimes [seen as] A sign of resilience and a woman's fighting spirit, globally, beauty is a great calming agent during difficult times. I call this the dopamine effect. it makes people happy. It makes people feel good about themselves. This is a little affordable treat that allows people to escape for a while from the bad news they hear on TV every day. In 2023, in the world we have to live in, people went to see barbie I bought some cosmetics, and I'm happy because they're pink. And it works.
I am very confident in the beauty market and ourselves. Because if you look back at history, in his 37 years at L'Oréal, his 2020 was the only year in which the beauty market did not grow. And it wasn't the people's fault. I didn't want to buy beauty products because the stores were closed. So as soon as stores reopened, people started consuming, and perhaps even more. Because I discovered the benefits of pampering myself during the coronavirus pandemic. [getting] For body care, fragrance, and hair care.So [that’s] Very positive for the market.
