Thank you, Sabrina, and good evening to you all. Thank you for joining us on this call for our first quarter 2026 sales.

As always, I'm here with Nicolas Hieronimus, our CEO—

Good afternoon.

—Christophe Babule, our CFO—

Hello, good afternoon. —and

Laurent Schmitt, our Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communication.

Good afternoon.

Nicolas will make some brief opening remarks, and we will then go straight to Q&A. Over to you, Nicolas.

Thank you, Eva. Good evening to you all.

As you could see in our numbers, we're off to a good start. Our like-for-like growth, adjusted of all IT transformation impact between last year and this year, was at +6.7%, well ahead of the global beauty market, which we estimate to be close to +4%, and we have been gaining share in all regions and divisions.

It was driven by the further acceleration in our innovation rate as we launched several new products with blockbuster potential. This allowed us to further expand our market share in fragrances, hair care, and makeup, whilst starting to see some green shoots in skincare.

We continue to strongly outperform in e-commerce, particularly in emerging markets. Even if we are wary of the potential impact of the Middle East conflict, we are optimistic about the outlook for the global beauty market, which has shown no sign of slowdown to date.

We are confident in our ability to outperform it because most of our '25 and '26 innovations are off to a good start, and we have more to come, and because we have the teams, the means, and of course the fighting spirit. We are now ready for your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please use your handset before asking your question and set your microphone on mute once you have asked your questions.

Oh, are you having some technical glitches? Because we can't hear any question.

Good evening. Can you hear me?

Yes. Good afternoon, Celine.

All right, great. Thank you for taking my question.

Clearly a very strong start to the year. You said that the market has continued to show good progress at 4%.

Can you talk about what you see, you said you were potentially wary about the impact of the geopolitics, what you could see in terms of potential impacts in travel retail as well as maybe you mentioned Middle East seems to have been a small weakness. That would be my first question.

My second question on emerging markets, actually, it was a strong beat, SAPMENA accelerated, and we also see that China did very well. If you could give us a steer on the durability of that growth, and maybe a corollary to my first question that I should have asked is whether what you see in terms of the momentum, having started so well.

You were talking about acceleration at the end of last year. How would you characterize the rest of the year for L'Oréal?

Thank you, Celine. First thing, because just to make sure, my pronunciation was right.

I didn't say I was worried, I said I was wary, which means I'm—

Wary, yes. Mine, that's what I said, but maybe my pronunciation, thanks.

I'm conscious about the uncertainties that lie around this conflict. It's true that today, as far as the impact it has on our sales, it was absolutely manageable.

It impacted our sell-out in March in travel retail and indeed in the Emirates. This region, the Middle East, is less than 3% of our sales.

If we look at the situation over there, we see that I would say consumption has come back to normal in Saudi, which is an important growth market for us. As far as the Emirates are concerned, we see that the e-commerce is back to more or less normal, I would say the neighborhood malls are also back to consumption.

Where you find still a real impact is on the big tourist malls of Dubai and travel retail. Overall, this has had an impact in March, and of course we will see how things evolve in April, May.

We think it's overall manageable in the region. What we don't know is whether durable inflation on gas prices will impact consumer behaviors.

I must say that so far, and we're monitoring this very closely, we have seen absolutely no reduction of beauty consumption in our markets, whether it's Europe, North America, or SAPMENA, as you mentioned. Far, good.

Of course, we have to see. Then, of course, should the conflict last longer, the price of the Brent will have an impact on our sourcing, on our logistics, which is more a P&L impact than a top-line growth.

I would say, like you, we're all waiting to see the resolution of this conflict, so that leads us to a certain level of carefulness, which leads me to the momentum.

Oh, that's a big issue. We will have someone fix this.

I do apologize. If you're the only one listening to our responses, that's a problem.

I will pause, Céline, to make sure we fix this, and I will probably have to start again then if you were the only one to hear the answer. We seem to have had a few issues, which frankly I'm not very happy about.

We'll deal with that later.

I don't know if it's from here or from the...

Apparently, there was an issue with the... Hmm.

...the intermediary file. Let's wait and hope it doesn't take too long to fix.

They're trying to fix it.

How do we know whether it works, or...?

I think they're putting a line that people can call on the website now. I think we can answer the questions.

People will have access to the webcast, I think we go ahead.

All right, we continue with the questions. As far as the momentum, because I'll talk about the emerging at a later stage, but as far as the momentum is concerned, I would say two things.

The first thing is that Q1 was our most favorable, our easiest comp from last year. That has to be taken into account, as well as potential even if it's manageable, impact of Middle East consumption.

On the good side is that all the news we have today from our sell-out are very positive. We remain confident on the year, which is, as I said in the financial analyst meeting for the yearly results, we expect both the market, and more importantly L'Oréal, to grow faster in the full year of 2026 than it did in 2025.

Of course, this start of the year is an encouraging news for us. For emerging, you mentioned China in the emerging, for me, it has emerged a while ago, but it's true that the market has confirmed his stabilization or slight rebound, because it was at plus +1% at the end of last year, and it's now closer to between 1% and 2%, closer to +2%.

That remains pretty solid. The good news within the Chinese market is really the fact that there's been a shift back to selective.

What's been driving the growth of the market is more the selective market with, I would say, a bounce back of the confidence of the Chinese consumers, especially the more affluent one, with the fact that the stock market in China is feeling better. Of course, as we are overweighted in our business on the selective market, where we are gaining share, it is a very positive news.

We see China as continuing to, which is now for us including Hong Kong, yeah, is continuing to do well. We've really very seriously outperformed the market in the first quarter, as the market was, as I said, somewhere between +1% and 2%, and we were in mid-single digits in China, really gaining share, particularly on selective divisions.

As far as SAPMENA is concerned, it's also, it's been a good start of the year, with a market that remains in the same level of dynamism as the end of last year. Our sell-out is in line with our sell-in, there's no inventory building, with some markets that are very dynamic, like Vietnam particularly.

India is doing good, even though it's still very small for us. We are confident on SAPMENA.

The only emerging market that has slowed down in terms of market versus last year is Latin America, which was also so in Q4, and so it's more in mid-single digits now in the beginning of the year. We continue to outperform it, particularly in Brazil in CPD, in hair care, where we have strong results.

Overall, as you said, a good start, a very good start in sell-out, and a momentum that has to take into account the fact that Q1 was our easiest comp.

Super. Thank you so much, and it seems the webcast is on, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva. It's Warren here at Barclays.

Can you hear me?

Yes, and we do apologize to all the people connected that couldn't hear the beginning of the call, because there was apparently a technical glitch, which I sincerely sincerely apologize for.

Thank you. I've got one housekeeping question and then two main questions.

The housekeeping for Christophe, can you just clarify the phasing issues? There's been a little bit of confusion just on the 6.7% and the 4.3%, just what is the actual real underlying?

That would be great. Then my main questions, Nicolas, can you talk about the skincare market?

At CAGNY, you said it was one of your biggest priorities to improve performance around brands like Lancôme. It seems like there are some green shoots.

What's happening to the skincare market, and how happy are you with your innovations and traction? What can we maybe expect for skincare overall this year, given it's your single biggest category?

Then the second one really is could you maybe just outline the strength in Europe? It was very strong at the end of Q4, and that strength seems to be confirmed in the first quarter.

What are you seeing? Is it your market share, your innovations driving that continued outperformance?

Do you feel good that that can be sustained for the balance of the year? Thank you.

Yeah. Warren, I will start with, of course, what's happening on the IT transformation.

As it's very important to create this common backbone, we are going forward with this big project. We have noticed that in the press release in the page two, we have put a new column that gives you the adjusted growth.

The adjusted growth taking into account all the transformation that we had last year and this year. That's why, from the reported like-for-like growth of 7.6%, there is a negative adjustment of 19 basis points, 9-0, and therefore the underlying or adjusted like-for-like growth is 6.7%.

This is linked to a -340 basis points from the IT transformation in Q1, because we started Australia, UK, and we are starting with the US, and last year +250 basis points from the IT transformation of Q1 of last year. Net is -90, and you have it on the page two of the press release.

Is that clear for you, Warren?

Yes, it's clear. Thank you.

Okay. As far as categories are concerned, skincare market is doing overall pretty good, huh?

It's one of the markets that is mid-single digits. I think we estimated, because at this time of the year it's still an estimation, but we estimated around +4%.

We have indeed put in place our, I would say, our wake-up or counterattack plan, which has already delivered pretty strongly on LDB. As you can see, LDB is growing, our Dermatological Beauty division is growing double digits.

It's both the continued strength of La Roche-Posay, the return to growth of CeraVe, and very good health of SkinCeuticals, which, if you remember, has become our new billionaire brand in euros last year. Here it's doing very good.

When I say we're seeing green shoots is that a number of the launches that we've either put on the market at the end of last year, like Garnier's Toque Seco, which was a Brazil success and now has been rolled out in Latin America and Mexico, but also in Southeast Asia, is showing promising starts. We have new launches on L'Oréal Paris, Glass Skin Serum, which are starting well, too.

Of course, if I take Luxury, we have two positive effects. One is the fact that the selective Chinese market, is more positive, so that's good for us.

The launches we've put on the market, Plénitude cream, the new Kiehl's Medicated, are doing great. We've just had the first initial sell-outs of our new Lancôme Longevity ND line, which is the new launch that has been developed with a new integrated supplement that really allows to act on all signs of longevity, and the first sell-outs are very good.

If you add to that the fact that Mixa continues to thrive, that Thayers in the US, which was one of our acquisitions that had been a bit of a slow, is also growing, Medik8, our acquisition, does well, and of course we will be starting the rollout of Dr.G, our Korean brand. What I think today is very very strong on LDB, and you have promising signs on the other divisions, which have not materialized right now in a strong overperformance on the category, but I feel that it should be good for the rest of the year.

Helena Rubinstein is also, thanks to China, positive. It's getting better, and I would say the proof of the success of the strategy is really on the comeback on LDB, which is really really powerful.

As far as Europe is concerned, I think both explanations were right. One, the market is pretty resilient, right?

It's a market that's growing, mid-single digits around +4%-ish, consistent with the global beauty market. We are outperforming it on all four divisions, very significantly in Luxury, pretty good also on the mass market, on Professional thanks to Kérastase, and LDB is gaining share in the majority of countries.

CeraVe has become the number three derma brand in Europe for the first time. Europe is doing good, and I agree with you that some people are surprised, but I think Europe for me is the absolute demonstration of what we call the lipstick effect or the dopamine effect of beauty, because we really see in our consumer studies that even though consumers are worried and they have some preoccupation, they may cut on high-expense high-value items, but they use beauty as compensation for stressful climate and psychological buffer, and we see it with six several categories.

Good performance in Europe is driven as previously by Southern Europe, but also our DACH business is so Germany, Austria, and Switzerland is doing good, and the UK, which had an easier comparative, is off to a good start. Pretty solid in Europe, and so we expect the market to continue to be positive, I don't know, in the 3% to 4% bracket.

Of course, we are determined to continue to outperform.

That's super. Thank you both.

Thank you.

Hi there, Jeremy, HSBC here. Thanks for taking the questions.

A couple from me. The first one is maybe we could just go into Professional.

That was just a massive pick-up, from where you were, yeah, I guess over the last sort of six seven six quarters or so. Perhaps you could just talk about what was going particularly well within that division, and again any elements that you think might not be sustainable, or whether you just think you've got a template that's working really well at the moment and can be sustained.

Second thing is on Kering, you've now got that in the portfolio. Perhaps you could talk a bit about your sort of first steps with that portfolio and whether there's any chance of getting your hands on the Gucci license a bit earlier than 2028?

Thanks.

Okay. On Professional, indeed it's been a very strong performance of the division now for I would say more than 18 months, and it's really a performance that's driven by really a structural transformation of the division that has happened profoundly over the last couple of years, where this division has really truly become omnichannel, with on the one hand an always confirmed, reaffirmed dedication to supporting, growing the salon market with new technologies, new hair color products.

We just launched the new Redken Color Gel Oils. We just renovated Majirel.

We remain dedicated to supporting that channel. The big step change is that after having built highly desirable brands for decades, like Kérastase or Redken, the fact that we have become omnichannel and that these premium hair care brands are available in some selective outlets or online drives a phenomenal growth and attraction.

This happens at a time when hair care itself becomes a much more valorized and sophisticated and demanding category. All over the world, the hair is longer, whatever the age.

Hair grows longer, women keep their hair longer, people are concerned about hair loss, and you have more mixed population with lots of curly, textured hair that are much more demanding in terms of hair care. You have the combination of brands that have the science and the offer and the desirabilities that are now available to consumers even though they are premium, and a strong consumer-desired backbone.

The combination of these three factors is the perfect equation for the growth of the Professional division. I think it is sustainable, because the underlying demand is growing and because we have more technology.

Indeed, and at the end, the weight of premium hair care over the total hair care remains relatively moderate. It's one product out of 10 in mature markets, there is room to grow.

I think it's a good combination, I would say. I'm pretty confident about that.

It's

boosted also, we have to say, by a very strong e-commerce growth.

That's what I mean when I say omnichannel. The fact is it is available in a lot of platforms, and of course consumers and younger consumers are really craving for it.

We are just also expanding in emerging markets this division, which is also getting some traction. Lots of innovation, lots of demand, coveted brand, and availability online, while still protecting the professional support and professional equity with specific innovations for this channel, which is also, by the way, served by our teams in a more digital way than before, in a more, I would say, efficient way.

That's for Professional. As far as Kering is concerned, I'm afraid there's not much I can tell you.

It's true, the deal's been closed, it's ours since the 1st of April. Of course, we have met the teams.

We will be hosting them in our offices, and of course we'll be focusing on the brands, number one will be Creed, which is already a significant business, and looking at the two beautiful brands that are Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta. As far as the Gucci license anticipation is concerned, we are not having the discussions.

It's a discussion between Kering and Coty. I assume they are happening, but I have no news to give you on that front.

It's just the beginning, but we're really really excited, and when I look again at the performance that we have right now on Yves Saint Laurent, pretty excited the potential on Kering Beauty, which will have, because of the step-up inventory, a dilutive effect on the first half, which we'll comment probably at our first half results, but really really excited about this prospect. Nothing really new to tell you on Gucci.

Thanks very much.

Good evening, all. I've got one quick housekeeping question.

For the people that were not on the webcast and also because I missed the number, could you maybe repeat what is your initial assessment of the beauty market growth in the first quarter? Then my two questions, firstly on North America, because I think Q1 is your best quarterly performance in nearly two years.

Could you maybe shed some light on this? Particularly what kind of market growth are you seeing, any particular discrepancy between sell-in and sell-out in the quarter, and then looking at the four divisions, where are you seeing the most significant outperformance?

Then my second question, probably a question for Christophe. Early days, but to what extent your commodity and logistics cost outlook has already changed?

Appreciate you've got high gross margin, productivity savings, historically you've been really good at rapidly mitigating these headwinds. Could you also consider some pricing actions in the back half of the year should these higher prices persist?

Thank you very much.

All right. Guillaume, beauty market growth, and again apologies for the glitch in the beginning, we estimate the market in the first quarter to be shy of 4% growth, slightly below 3.8% or something like that.

As we don't have all the sell-out data, but it's more or less on the same pace than the second half of last year. It remains dynamic, and as I said earlier, we have been paying a lot of attention on the recent weeks to see whether there was any impact on consumer behaviors of the increase in gas prices or when people have to fuel their car tanks with, and we have seen absolutely no change in beauty consumption patterns.

That's the answer to your first question. As far as the US market of North America is concerned, first of all, what is important, as our growth is once adjusted of the IT transformation, is at +7.6%, it's indeed one of our best growth in a while.

With a little bit of discrepancy between sell-in and sell-out, because our sell-out is actually higher than our sell-in. We clearly outperform the market big time, I must say.

CPD in sell-out is really really doing great, because it's low double digits in sell-out, which is great, with hair care on fire. The reason why we're a bit behind in sell-in, which is one of the explanations why our Consumer Products division is a bit below some of the expectations, is the fact that we had kind of the perfect storm in the US, with outplay of words, because we had, on the one hand, sell-out that's really going really really strong, particularly in hair care, but overall across all categories.

We are building the inventory to prepare for our IT switch, which will be early June in the US. At the same time, we had a snowstorm on our big distribution center in Arkansas, we lost some sales there.

Overall, CPD is doing great. Professional is, a bit like everywhere, I would say the good sign is that salon-centric, which had been a bit lackluster last year, is back to positive growth, it's helped by the launch of Color Wow, but overall we see a little better situation in the salon world.

Luxury is doing good thanks to fragrance and recent launches in fragrances, and La Roche-Posay and LDB in general are also doing pretty well, because you have both the recovery of CeraVe in skincare and good performance in hair care, and La Roche-Posay continues to thrive. Overall, I think we are in a very good sell-out situation in the US, and we are managing our biggest country, this move to our new SAP in the US is something that we worked very hard on, and that had a minor, but real, logistic implication in the first quarter.

Overall, it's one of the countries where performance is really very good right now. Christophe on the impact of—

On the impact, first let me give you also a flavor on the structure of the growth, because I think it's important. We have both growth in volume and value.

Basically, volume accounts for around 40% of this growth, and therefore the value is there also to protect, of course, our gross margin. As you can imagine, first part of the half, we have a negative impact linked to the tariffs.

This will have a negative impact on the gross margin for the first half, but we are trying, of course, to mitigate the impact with different aspects. On the other side, we have being computing the potential cost linked to the oil.

As you can imagine, we have on one side additional cost on the logistics, and also a direct additional cost potentially on the sourcing of some materials, meaning the plastics. When we add both of them, if the oil stays at around $90 to $100 the barrel, then the additional impact could be in the range of €90 to €100 million.

Of course, all this is being calculated based on the evolution of the prices. We will see, because the biggest risk at the end will be the inflation that may come from this oil increase.

If inflation of course goes up on the long term, of course we may have to take some action on the pricing later this year.

We'll see if it lasts, whether we need to do it, but also we'll have potentially some good news on the tariffs in the US the second half of this year with the change in percentage that we now have. We'll see, we're monitoring.

As we have this capacity to take prices up, and we have a lot of, I would say, opportunities in what we call revenue growth management, where the articulation of formats, product mixes, etc., and promotions is also another way to protect our gross margin without necessarily taking prices up too much for consumers. That's how we did it post-COVID, and that's one of the tools we use to keep on recruiting consumers while protecting our P&L.

Very clear. Thank you.

Oh, yes. Thanks for taking my questions.

I have two. First one is just can you remind us, like-for-like, is that assuming that what you own now you owned last year, or is it excluding the contribution of everything that's been acquired until you get to a year afterwards?

I'm just thinking because obviously you've got some bigger M&A coming in. Then the second question—

It includes what we acquired during the year.

If Medik8 is growing at 100%, you would benefit from that in your like-for-like.

We would have, if they are growing at 100%, yeah. We still have the sales, in the base we have the sales that Medik8 did

without

us last year. They're doing great, by the way.

I can see it. It's everywhere in the shops over here now, so.

Second question was on Mixa and the rollout. Could you talk about where that's been rolled out from a geographic perspective, and how much further there is to go?

Thanks.

Mixa today it's mostly a European rollout, right? It's launched in DACH, and we are, of course, studying a few other European countries.

As always at L'Oréal, when things start flying, you have a few countries that are beginning to raise their hand and are becoming interested. Right now it's mostly Europe, but we may have other candidates later.

This year, it's mostly a European play.

Great. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva. I might have missed this at the beginning on your remarks at the beginning, but SAPMENA was up 15.4%.

Have you made any comments on the impact from the issues in the Middle East, and if, like some of your peers in luxury, expect any impact in Q2? Then just one question going back to Derma and the growth of CeraVe, which continued and nice turnaround there, you mentioned the growth of hair care in North America for CeraVe.

Have you reached the full distribution for your hair care range compared to your skincare offer, and how much of CeraVe in the US is hair care today? Thank you.

I'm not sure I have all the details to the latter. It hasn't reached full distribution, but more importantly, it hasn't reached full potential, because it's very very recent.

It's growing month after month. What's interesting in this line, you've got both anti-dandruff and I would say normal shampoo, and both are working very well.

It's totally additional for CeraVe and for us. It's still a minor part of the business in the US, but growing.

For us, what's really interesting is that CeraVe's turnaround is also and mostly driven by the turnaround of skincare. We've launched an intensive lotion on the back end of last year, which is doing really great.

It's really and it's true everywhere. We are just launching on CeraVe, which is not a US story today, but we're just launching Suncare in Europe, which is a good complement to the price positioning and overall strategy to La Roche-Posay.

It is promising. The brand is back to growth, and that's for us a very good news, because it had at some point started plateauing, and now it's growing again, and I think there's a lot of potential.

On the Middle East, first of all, a reminder for everyone, it's less than 3% of our sales and has, I would say, a manageable impact on the month of March. It will have an impact on Q3, but I would say it's not as big as some of the other players you're mentioning.

Because it's smaller in our business. Second, that what we see today is that Saudi Arabia is back to normal in terms of consumption, that e-commerce, which is, as one of the areas we bet on, is also pretty pretty resilient, and even the neighborhood malls in the Emirates are doing okay.

It's really more both the tourists visiting the big malls, Dubai Mall, and the travel retail. It's going to impact more our L'Oréal Luxe business than any other division.

I would say it will have an impact, but it will really depend on how long the conflict lasts, and whether particularly tourists and travelers are confident to go back to this region. As far as local consumption, it is, I would say, globally okay.

By the way, most importantly, all our teams are safe and working, and I think if you look mid-term or long-term, it remains a very strong area of growth for us, because in terms of size of the population, the economy, the women that are more and more empowered. I would say I was last fall in Saudi, and it was pretty exciting.

Today the impact exists. It will impact more Q2 than Q1, but it is, I think, overall manageable.

Thank you very much.

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have two. The first one on North Asia, the market is finally rebounding in China, and you are outperforming it.

I'm just curious to hear your outlook for the year, and to what extent you believe this rebound is sustainable, and does the fact that the luxury beauty segment is driving the recovery confirm that Chinese consumers are more inclined to engage in discretionary spendings and trade up in your view? Second questions on the fragrance category, there are some of your competitors in beauty in general and fragrances that are facing difficulties, and it seems to be fueling a new wave of consolidation, or at least rumors of potential mergers for some.

Are you still on the lookout to acquire some additional fragrance licenses, or do you consider your portfolio sufficiently broad after the Kering Beauty deal? Thank you.

First on the North Asian market, it's true that it has recovered, and for North Asia, the biggest part, of course, is China. For us, it's 70% of the total.

It's really what is the absolute, for us, barometer or thermometer of the market. Indeed, China has gone back to positive territory.

It's not a massive rebound. It's, as we said, somewhere between +1% and 2%, but it is positive, and indeed it's more driven by selective, premium products.

It's true for our luxury brands, but it's also true for Kérastase or SkinCeuticals, who are both very positive. I would attribute it to probably two factors.

One is that indeed, there is, thanks to the rebound of the stock markets in China, there is a bit more discretionary spending. There's also, as travel retail remains negative, especially on domestic, there is also probably some transfer of consumption from what used to be travel retail to the domestic Chinese market.

Overall, we are confident on the fact that China will grow. We are conquering new consumers.

That's interesting, because we've been for a while stuck to 100 million consumers in China, and we've increased it to 105 and growing, 108 latest consumption, thanks to the penetration in tier 3, 4, 5 cities, which are driving the growth, and that's the combination of a couple of door openings, but of penetration allowed by e-commerce and Douyin in particular. Overall, we don't want to get carried away, and it remains a market which has not its old growth rhythm, but it's positive.

Our brands are doing good. We are expanding our couture brands, like Prada, and there's good response.

Aesop is doing good in China. It's a brand that Chinese consumers love, I would say that it is positive news for us.

It's a very competitive market, of course, and that forces us to be ever more innovative, but confident on that. On fragrance, first of all, it's true that, well, the market, as some of the players said, has slowed down a bit.

It remains positive, right? It's mid-single digit.

We are really growing much faster than the market. Very happy that Libre has become at the end of last year, for several months, number one feminine fragrance in the world.

We have had a lot of initiatives earlier in the year, whether it's the extensions of YSL Libre or Berry Crush, or the new female fragrance on Armani, Emporio Armani Power of You. Female fragrances on Armani were always a bit of a challenge, and this one is off to a great start, we are really firing on all cylinders on fragrances.

Frankly, to your question, we're just, if I may use that term, got the keys of Kering Beauty a couple of weeks ago, and we have to, of course, integrate the teams, brands, and which have potential. We are not on the lookout for more brands in the fragrance world.

We have a lot to do with, and we are very happy with the way we're doing it.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Just one question.

In the earlier question a reference that, potentially we're going to see meaningful consolidation in the industry. My questions are, a, what do you think that says about the industry, if anything?

Secondly, would you expect this to be the sort of first move in potentially a chain of consolidation, or is it your expectation this is a sort of one-off event? Thank you.

I obviously not comment on or make predictions on the consolidation of the industry. What is true is that there has been a lot of either movements or announcements of movements recently.

For me, what it says, whether it's the decisions from Unilever or the discussions between Puig and Estée Lauder, it says a few things. It says, first of all, the confirmation that beauty is a very attractive category, because some groups want to be more involved in that category.

It's a category and once again, it's proving it right now, it's one of the best growing categories around the world. The second is that scale and a good portfolio of brands is one of the winning factors, but they're not the only ones.

You have to have the innovation power, you have to have the agility, because being big is not always compatible with being agile, and that's what really we are very focused on keeping at L'Oréal. Then there's the company culture, and that's where, whatever happens with the moves that people are talking about, having a company culture where people are aligned behind a mission, the way of doing things, is also a quintessential success factor.

I don't know whether there's going to be more, but it's in the end, it's good for the beauty industry to have players that invest in it, and it's always good for us to be stimulated.

Thank you.

Terrific, thank you very much. I'd like to drill into the China market a little bit more, and parts of your business there.

I think you said that in the quarter, China was up 1% to 2% and continues to show sequential rebound. Can you maybe just give us a little bit more detail in terms now of how that market splits between online and offline, and how each of those channels is doing?

You also then mentioned that prestige, or what you're I think now calling selective, was doing much better. Perhaps maybe just tell us how much better, or at least how the market is doing in terms of prestige growth versus mass, which we think is down.

Then my last question, again related to China, I'd like to understand better the development of the Helena Rubinstein brand there. From the data that we've seen, I think there was an initial Helena Rubinstein brand that started off very high price and then came down, but then you've I think launched another very high price, very premium Helena Rubinstein brand, I think that's the PX50.

Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the strategy around Helena Rubinstein in China and how that's doing. Thank you.

Okay. On the Chinese market, first of all, in China, the majority of the market, a little bit more than half, is online.

Of course, then the weight depends on the categories. There's probably more offline on hair care, and more online on a number of prestige products.

If we look at the market overall, most of the growth, if not all of the growth of the market, is driven by online, which doesn't prevent us at L'Oréal from, at least in Q1 as it was in the last two previous quarters, to be growing both online and offline, because we are also overweighted on Luxury, and that's where the importance of offline, to have consumers feel the experience of the brand, which by the way will tie to Helena Rubinstein, is very important. Indeed, you're right to say that the mass market is slightly negative, and that the other, whether it's Luxury or Dermatology, are growing more in mid-single digits.

In both cases, we are winning share and doing better. It is a market that's indeed right now seeing a stronger growth of more premium products and more premium brands, including, by the way, a high weight of, in recent months, of Western brands, and ours in particular.

That's what we see today on the market, and we've had really a strong momentum in Luxury. When I was referring to selective or prestige brands, I was including in some of our other divisions, like Dermatological Beauty or Professional, we have brands that are more premium, like Kérastase or SkinCeuticals, and they are doing particularly well in China.

As far as Helena Rubinstein, there's absolutely no change in strategy. There was one a decade ago when we decided to reposition that brand, which was a brand that was multi-category, doing makeup and even fragrance, into a brand focused on premium skincare, and of course with a particular focus on China.

Since then, we've never changed strategy. The previous Re-PLASTY night cream, which had 30% Pro-Xylane, was the number one selling cream in China in value in '24.

What we did, and there you're right, we launched a more premium one on top, which was called PX50, that has got 50% Pro-Xylane, which we launched in fall of last year, and that cream is indeed driving the growth of the brand, because this brand, which is really positioned on the most affluent, demanding consumers, is of course very successful when it launches very innovative, unique products that have no equivalent. I was talking about offline.

Helena Rubinstein has got counters and stores. In all of them, you have cabins where these VVIPs can get treatments, and that's also contributing to the desirability of the brand, which is paying now that the Chinese market is turning again positive on selective.

No change in strategy, just the confirmation that on brands such as Helena Rubinstein, you have to go with superior quality, superior service, and demanding Chinese and affluent consumers are craving for it. Voilà!

I think this ends the Q&A, Eva.

Can I just say that we are again apologizing for this technical issue, and the webcast will be available in 15 minutes, you will all have access to the full call in 15 minutes. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Bye.