French cosmetics and beauty products company L’Oréal is one the world’s largest cosmetics companies. L’Oréal deals in cosmetics including hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care. The company is also active in the dermatology, toxicology, tissue engineering, and biopharmaceutical research fields and is the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.

BLAZE TO BRILLIANCE
Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist of German descent, developed a hair dye formula called Auréale in 1909. He formulated and manufactured his own products and sold them off to Parisian hairdressers.
Eventually on July 31, 1919, Schueller registered his company under the name Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux (Safe Hair Dye Company of France). The company was later renamed L’Oréal.
From a small holding of three chemists to employing nearly 2,000 people today, L’Oreal is the world leader in beauty products with its presence across 130 countries and five continents.
FAITH FACTOR
The group’s mission is to provide the best in cosmetics innovation to women and men around the world with respect for their diversity. From a hair-colour business the company soon branched out into other cleansing and beauty products. It currently markets over 500 brands and many thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business— hair colour, hair styling, body and skin care, cleansers, makeup and fragrances.
ENGAGEMENT THAT ENTHRALS
From 1988 to 1989, L’Oréal also controlled the film company Paravision, whose properties included the Filmation and De Laurentiis libraries. StudioCanal later acquired the Paravision properties in 1994.
Also in 1973, L’Oréal purchased Synthélabo, a pharmaceutical company, to pursue its ambitions in the respective field. Later in 1999, Synthélabo merged with Sanofi to become Sanofi-Synthélabo. In March 2006 L’Oréal also purchased cosmetics company The Body Shop for £562 million.
In November 2012, L’Oréal inaugurated the largest factory in Jababeka Industrial Park, Cikarang, Indonesia, with a total investment of $100 million. In January 2014, L’Oréal made the acquisition of major Chinese beauty brand Magic Holdings for $843 million. L’Oréal also owns a hair and body products line for kids called L’Oréal Kids.
INNOVEDGE
In addition to the production of beauty products, L’Oréal has six research and development centres present across the globe including two in France, one in the US, one in Japan, one in China and one in India. It envisions developing another facility in the US in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.
BRAND EQUITY
L’Oréal’s popular tag line ‘Because we’re worth it’ has been revamped twice in the past. From initially being rolled out as ‘Because I’m worth it’, it was later changed to ‘Because you’re worth it’ and following a work into motivation analysis and consumer psychology, the shift to ‘we’ was made to create stronger consumer involvement.