Globally satisfactory start of the year, with an increase of 5.1% like-for-like. The group is confident in growth acceleration over the upcoming quarters. Annual targets are confirmed.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Jean-Paul Agon, Chief Executive Officer of L'Oréal, said: “In the first quarter, we achieved globally satisfactory growth: excluding North America, where the environment was exceptionally difficult, the group achieved growth of +7.5% in line with our projections.
The Rest of the World Zone continued to grow very strongly, particularly in Asia and Eastern Europe, and is fully playing its role as a powerful growth relay. In Western Europe, the start of the year is in line with our expectations in a market which remains solid. In North America, after an exceptional 4th quarter 2007, we had been anticipating a lacklustre 1st quarter; in fact, it turned out to be more difficult because of lower footfall in department stores and larger than expected inventory reductions by our distributors.
We are confident in our ability to accelerate our growth over the coming quarters thanks to favourable launch phasing, better prospects in North America, and continuing dynamism in the other Zones.
We are therefore able to confirm our annual like-for-like growth target range of +6% to +8%."
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April 15, 2008
