A Who’s Who of the cosmetics industry, these companies weigh in at $176.18 billion.
Firms are listed by their parent company and ranked by beauty sales for the 2010 calendar year. For companies whose fiscal year did not run from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010, estimates were calculated. All sales figures were either obtained from the companies or generated with the help of industry sources.
For this list, “beauty” includes fragrance, makeup, skin care, sun care, hair care, deodorant, plus cellulite and shaving products. It does not take into account bar soaps, razors, toothpastes, foods and diet foods, medicines, vitamins or detergents. Beauty revenues only include sales of beauty products each firm manufactures and not business from private label lines or products it might distribute for other firms. Year-on-year percentage changes are in real terms, not on a like-for-like basis, and non-U.S.-based companies’ sales are converted into dollars according to the average yearly exchange rates for 2010.
The total $176.18 billion of sales generated by the top 100 companies was up 25.1% year-on-year. Nevertheless, much of the difference stems from exchange rate fluctuations, with growth rates in local currencies generally being more modest.
The vast majority of companies—83—increased their sales, while 39 registered double-digit growth. Of the 15 posting revenue declines, seven were from Japan, which highlights the ongoing slump in consumer confidence there.
Reflecting the high growth levels of many companies on the list, the smallest firms were significantly larger than those in last year’s ranking. For instance, the 100th-ranked firm generated $122.7 million, versus $112.5 million in the 2009 edition, or a 9.2% increase.
There wasn’t much major mergers-and-acquisitions activity in 2010, although two players were knocked off the ranking since they were bought: Bare Escentuals, which was snapped up by Shiseido in 2010 for $1.7 billion, and Sara Lee, whose €1.28 billion takeover by Unilever was completed last year.
Geographically speaking, some companies in emerging markets maintained a blistering growth rate: In Brazil, Natura’s revenues rose 21.1% and Hypermarcas’ sales spiked 97.8%, for example. Meantime, in India, Dabur India’s revenues grew 10.4%.

1.L’Oréal

Rank 1

Clichy, France
$25.89 billion
€19.5 billion
+11.6% v. '09
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Consumer: L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, Soft Sheen Carson, Le Club des Createurs de Beauté. Professional: L’OréalProfessionnel, Kérastase, Kéraskin Esthetics, Redken, Matrix, Mizani, ShuUemura Art of Hair, PureOlogy. Luxury: Lancôme, Biotherm, Helena Rubinstein, Kiehl’s, ShuUemura, Giorgio Armani Parfums and Cosmetics, ParfumsCacharel, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Paloma Picasso, Parfums Guy Laroche, Diesel, Yue-Sai, Viktor & Rolf, Maison Martin Margiela, Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, ErmenegildoZegna. Active Cosmetics: Vichy, La Roche-Posay, SkinCeuticals, Sanoflore, Roger & Gallet. The Body Shop.LaboratoiresInnéov, Galderma (50% each).
L’Oréal returned to double-digit sales growth in 2010, due to strong business in all geographic zones, retail channels and product segments and favorable exchange rates. The company’s net profits increased 25% to €2.24 billion. Within the Luxury Products Division, whose revenues gained 11.5% to €4.51 billion, the Yves Saint Laurent brand posted a double-digit organic uptick thanks to its fragrance business and the Rouge Pur Couture lipstick launch. Giorgio Armani Parfums and Cosmetics was bolstered by the introduction of AcquadiGioia women’s fragrance, and Kiehl’s performed well everywhere. The Consumer Products Division’s sales rose 11.4% to €9.53 billion, backed by its makeup category’s dynamism in all regions. At Maybelline New York, whose organic sales grew 13.3%, gains were also spurred by global growth. With revenues of €2.72 billion, the Professional Products Division registered a 13.8% year-on-year increase, due partly to the addition of 35,000 doors to its salon network. Meanwhile, the Active Cosmetics Division’s sales rose 8.9% to €1.39 billion, boosted by La Roche-Posay’s increasing market share and its Redermic+ product. SkinCeuticals’ presence was expanded in Europe, and the brand was launched in China, Canada and Brazil. In January 2010, Roger & Gallet was integrated into the division, which maintained its top-ranking dermocosmetics spot. The Body Shop continued undergoing restructuring last year and registered sales up 3.9% to €754.9 million. On a like-for-like basis, they declined 1.1%. The Body Shop improved its profitability last year. In Western Europe, L’Oréal’s leading market, revenues gained 2.6% to €7.18 billion. “New markets,” including the Asia-Pacific region, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, posted 22.4% growth to €6.67 billion and are fast catching up to Western Europe sales-wise. China became L’Oréal’s third-largest subsidiary, with revenues increasing 17.6%—or 11.1% in local currency—to more than €1 billion. Other new markets with standout performances included India, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and Argentina. Sales in North America grew 12.5% to €4.29 billion, spurred in part by the successes of Maybelline and ammonia-free hair colorant Inoa. Star brands during 2010 were L’OréalProfessionnel, with Inoa; Maybelline, which ranks number-one in makeup in the U.S., Europe and China; Yves Saint Laurent, which L’Oréal said is undergoing a “renaissance”; Kiehl’s, with 43% growth, and La Roche-Posay, with continued geographic expansion. After a flurry of buys in first-half 2010, acquisition activity slowed through year-end. In December 2010, L’Oréal announced its purchase of Peel’s Salon Services. The Nebraska-based company distributes to hair salons in 12 Midwestern U.S. states and has annual sales of about $100 million. L’Oréal spent 3.4% of its revenues on research and development and 30.9% on advertising and promotion in 2010. Changes to the company’s executive committee, starting January 1, 2011, included the appointment of Marc Menesguen as managing director of the newly created Strategic Marketing Department, Nicolas Hieronimus as managing director of the Luxury Products Division and An Verhulst-Santos as managing director of the Professional Products Division. Recently signed L’Oréalspokesmodels are Benjamin Millepied for YSL, LiyaKebede for L’Oréal Paris and Megan Fox for Giorgio Armani Cosmetics. By year-end 2010, the Bettencourt family owned 30.9% of L’Oréal; Nestlé, 29.7%, and international institutional investors, 21.3%.

2.Procter & Gamble

Rank 2

Cincinnati
$19.57 billion (est.)
+5.2% v. '09 (est.)
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Clairol, Herbal Essences, Nice ‘n Easy, Natural Instincts, Wella, WellaKoleston, Sebastian Professional, Nioxin, Vidal Sassoon, Aussie, Rejoice, FrédéricFekkai (hair care, professional products). Cover Girl, Max Factor (makeup). Hugo Boss, Old Spice, Lacoste, Jean Patou, Gucci, Escada, Puma, Anna Sui, Ghost, Dunhill, Christina Aguilera, Replay, Rochas (fragrance).Dolce & Gabbana (fragrance, makeup). Venus, Olay, SK-II, Noxzema (in Western Europe), DDF, Gillette, The Art of Shaving, Zirh (skin care). Secret (deodorant).
During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, sales for Procter & Gamble's beauty business rose 3% year-on-year to $19.49 billion on unit-volume growth of 3%. Net sales gains were positively impacted 1% thanks to product price increases and negatively affected 1% by an unfavorable geographic mix. The beauty division’s net profits increased 2% to $2.71 billion. P&G’s retail hair care sales gained in the midsingle digits and female beauty revenues grew in the low-single digits. Meantime, its professional hair care products' sales in salons declined in the double digits and the prestige business’ revenues fell in the lowsingle digits. In 2010, P&G's beauty and hair care activities were consolidated under Gina Drosos, who became group president of Global Beauty (and subsequently group president of Global Female Beauty). Colleen Jay was named president of Global Female Beauty, and Christopher de Lapuente left P&G as group president of Global Hair Care. AdilMeboobkhan became president of Global Salon Professional on May 1, 2011, replacing Robert Jongstra, who's to retire on January 1, 2012. Ed Shirley, a rising star in P&G and the beauty industry, announced on May 3, 2011, his decision to retire as vice chairman of Beauty and Grooming, turning the reins over to DimitriPanayotopoulos, vice chairman of Global Household Care, on July 1, 2011. Shirley, who will depart on January 1, 2012, is said to be leaving to find a ceo position elsewhere, since Robert A. McDonald is firmly established in P&G’s top spot. Chip Bergh, group president of Global Male Grooming, said on June 6, 2011, he was also leaving P&G to pursue a ceo role. Ten days later, he was named president and ceo of Levi Strauss & Co. Bergh's P&G post was filled by Patrice Louvet, formerly president of Global Prestige, on July 1, 2011. He was succeeded by Joanne Crewes. Craig Bahner, vice president, North America Hair Care and Color, will leave P&G on September 1. McDonald described the personnel changes as part of corporate life’s natural progression. With Gucci Guilty in fall 2010, P&G scored one of its biggest fragrance launches. Sales of the women's scent doubled the company's expectations, generating $200 million in first-year global retail revenues, according to industry estimates. In prestige fragrance, P&G ranks number two globally. Its prestige division laid out a battle plan to venture into makeup and treatment. Another major 2010 introduction was NatureLuxe, positioned as the first luxury and natural-inspired makeup from Cover Girl. In September 2010, Carrie Underwood inked a two-year deal to be Olay's face in North America. Three months later, P&G unveiled its growth strategy for the next five to six years, including expanding its existing portfolio, developing adjacencies, growing share and markets and entering new categories with "disruptive innovation." In February 2011, P&G consolidated its three business units into two, with Global Beauty and Grooming absorbing oral care and feminine care, and Global Household Care integrating the personal health, pet and snack businesses. The move was designed to cut costs. Also this year, P&G began a two-year global pilot of a new type of renewable, sustainable and recyclable plastic made from Brazilian sugarcane.

3.Unilever

Rank 3

London;Rotterdam, Netherlands
$16.98 billion (est.)
€12.79 billion (est.)
+16.2% V. '09 (est.)
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Unilever Personal Care: Axe/Lynx, Impulse, Rexona/Sure, Degree, Dove, Lux, Pond's, Suave, Sunsilk/Seda/Sedal/Hazeline, Timotei, Clear, Mods, Vaseline, Tigi, Monsavon, Radox, Duschdas, Brylcreem.
Unilever’s total 2010 sales rose 11.2% year-on-year to €44.26 billion. At constant currency, company revenues increased 3.6%. Growth stemmed chiefly from a strong performance in emerging markets, which offset flat business in Unilever’s developed markets. Revenues from the company’s personal care division, including bar soap and oral care, gained 16.2% to €13.77 billion. The uptick was due to sales of the Dove for Men + Care face and body line, Rexona deodorant and Axe’s Excite fragrance launch. Hair care also posted growth, thanks to the new, well-received Dove Damage Therapy hair care collection and Tigi, which continued to perform in its professional hair care markets, including the U.S. and U.K. Unilever’s personal care sales generated 30% of its total 2010 revenues. In December 2010, the company completed its €1.28 billion acquisition of Sara Lee Corp.’s personal care and European laundry detergent businesses. However, approval of the deal by the European Commission was contingent on Unilever divesting its Sanex brand in the European economic area, and in March 2011 Unilever agreed to sell it to Colgate-Palmolive for €672 million. That deal was done in June 2011. Unilever announced in September 2010 its definitive agreement to purchase Melrose Park, Ill.-based Alberto Culver for $3.7 billion in cash. The acquisition was completed in May 2011, making Unilever the world’s leading company in hair conditioning, second-largest in shampoo and third-largest in styling, it said. Meantime, the U.S. Justice Department stipulated Unilever must sell its own Rave brand and the Alberto VO5 brand. Outside of the U.S., the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading mandated Unilever had to divest the Simple, Wright’s and Cidal bar soap brands, formerly part of Alberto Culver’s portfolio. In June 2011, Unilever sold the perpetual license for Simple bar soap and the Wright’s and Cidal bar soap businesses to Lornamead.

4.The Estée Lauder Cos.

Rank 4

New York
$8.29 billion (est.)
+10.6% v. '09 (est.)
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series, Origins, MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Kiton, La Mer, Donna Karan, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Michael Kors, Sean John, Missoni, Tom Ford Beauty, Coach, Ojon, Smashbox. Beautybank: American Beauty, Flirt, Good Skin Labs, Grassroots Research Labs, Daisy Fuentes.
Recovery in U.S. department stores, growing specialty store revenues, a greater focus on e-commerce and digital strategies plus the strengthening of emerging markets were key drivers fueling The Estée Lauder Cos.’ growth in 2010. It registered gains in each region. Top markets were the U.S., which generated 38% of total 2010 sales; travel retail, with 10%; the U.K., which rang up 8%, and Japan, which made 4%. Strong increases were noted in emerging markets, particularly China, where the Estée Lauder brand led in prestige distribution. Company online sales grew in the high double digits. Skin care generated 42% of the Estée Lauder Cos.’ sales; makeup, 38%; fragrance, 15%, and hair care, 5%, in 2010. Key personnel appointments in the period included Ricardo Quintero’s becoming senior vice president and global general manager, market development for Clinique (a new position) and Karen Buglisi’s appointment as global brand president for MAC Cosmetics. New faces include Joan Smalls for the Estée Lauder brand and Heather Morris for Flirt. Lady Gaga signed for a second year as a spokeswoman for MAC Cosmetics’ Viva Glam campaign. Clinique Even Better Spot Corrector and Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye were among major product launches. In May 2011, Clinique appointed Jenna Menard as its global color artist. The next month, the Estée Lauder Cos. opened its new innovation center in Shanghai and launched a multicultural- themed advertising campaign for its Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator and Idealist Cooling Eye Illuminator products. Effective July 1, 2011, the Estée Lauder Cos. assumed the worldwide fragrance license for ErmenegildoZegna. The firm increased its marketing budget 17.6% to $2.14 billion during its fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, versus the same prior-year period. Also in the 2011 fiscal year, the Estée Lauder Cos. anticipated $190 million in cost savings, following savings of $360 million in the 2010 fiscal year. The company’s products are sold in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide.

5.Shiseido Co.

Rank 5

Tokyo
$7.75 billion (est.)
¥678.99 billion (est.)
+6.4% v. '09 (est.)
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Shiseido, Clé de PeauBeauté, Sea Breeze, Carita, Decléor, Nars, Joico, Aupres, Supreme Aupres, Urara, Pure & Mild, Za, D’iciLà, Ipsa, Ayura, Ettusais, Shiseido Professional, Zotos, Serge Lutens, Bare Escentuals, In and On. Beauté Prestige International: ParfumsIssey Miyake, Parfums Jean Paul Gaultier, ParfumsNarciso Rodriguez, ParfumsElie Saab.
Shiseido's net profits for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, declined 62% to ¥12.79 billion, partly due to a change in estimation of product samples and promotional materials within the scope of assets, a devaluation loss on investments in securities plus an extraordinary loss and other expenses related to the Japan earthquake in spring 2011. Operating profits fell 11.7% to ¥44.46 billion, stemming from a one-time surge in expenses linked to the Bare Escentuals acquisition, which was completed in March 2010. Total net sales for Shiseido increased 4.1% to ¥670.7 billion, driven by factors such as an uptick in European and North American growth and ongoing gains in Asia. In Japan, Shiseido generated revenues of ¥382.87 billion, a 5.8% year-on-year decline, which Shiseido attributed to factors such as ongoing depressed consumer sentiment, its lack of response to the market’s polarization between high- and low-priced products plus reduced retailer inventories. Overseas, Shiseido’s sales spiked 21.2% to ¥287.84 billion. The Americas made 12.7% of total revenues; Europe, 12.6%, and Asia, 17.5%. Shiseido’s international sales gain came thanks partly to Nars posting a significant U.S. revenues increase and Bare Escentuals outperforming expectations. Beauté Prestige International performed well. Shiseido also benefited from the recovery of sales in airport duty free shops and its successful introduction of channel-specific marketing in China. China generated approximately 10% of consolidated company revenues. By year-end 2010 in Russia, Shiseido tripled its door count year-on-year to 900. It entered Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Mongolia, South Africa, Georgia, Colombia and Moldova and was in 85 countries by the end of its last fiscal year. In 2010, Shiseido completed the first part of its 10-year plan to become “a global player representing Asia with its origins in Japan,” begun in 2008. The focus through 2013 is to further strengthen its global business and to rebuild domestic activities. On April 1, 2011, HisayukiSuekawa succeeded Shinzo Maeda as company president and ceo.

6.Avon Products

Rank 6

New York
$7.67 billion
+3.5% v. '09*
Subsidiaries + Main Brands in 2010: Avon Color, Anew, Skin-So-Soft, Avon Solutions, Avon Naturals, Avon Clearskin, Mark, Liz Earle, Tiny Tillia (skin care, makeup). Advance Techniques (hair care). Reese Witherspoon, Derek Jeter, Patrick Dempsey, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Lacroix, Fergie, Hervé Léger (fragrance).
In 2010, Avon Products’ total revenues rose 6.4% year-on-year to $10.86 billion, driven by an 11% increase in fragrance sales. Helping spur scent revenue growth was the introduction of Outspoken by Fergie (the Black Eyed Peas frontwoman) in October 2010, which was the direct seller’s largest fragrance launch in company history. Last year, Avon’s net profits declined 3.1% to $606.3 million. The company’s investment in advertising increased 13.5% against 2009 levels. Its number of newly recruited active representatives decelerated in 2010, rising only 4% to 6.5 million, versus a 10% gain in 2009. During fourth-quarter 2010, Avon sold its ownership of Avon Japan to an affiliate of TPG Capital for ¥7.3 billion in a bid to focus on direct-selling markets with "high growth potential." In February 2011, Avon reorganized its six commercial business units into two major business groups: the Developed Market Group, led by Charles Cramb, vice chairman, and the Developing Market Group, headed by Charles Herington, executive vice president. The changes came as Avon outlined its 2011 priorities impacting the company’s three largest markets—namely to restore growth in Brazil and Russia, stabilize the business in North America—plus reignite the high-margin skin care category and deliver operating margin expansion. North America generated 20% of the company’s total revenues in 2010. Sales at constant currency exchange increased more than 60% in South Africa, more than 50% in India, 17% in Central America, 14% in Ukraine and 10% in the Philippines and Colombia. The company said it remains positive about its long-term opportunity in China. Avon continued investigating allegations that company employees bribed officials in China and in other countries. In May 2011, Avon fired four employees as a result of the investigation, which began in June 2008 and is being conducted under the oversight of the company’s audit committee.
* NOTE: Following the sale of its Japanese subsidiary in December 2010, Avon Products revised its 2009 numbers to reflect discontinued operations. On a like-for-like basis, Avon’s 2010 beauty sales rose 5.8% year-on-year.