L’Oréal is reorganizing its beauty brand portfolio

L'Oréal has indeed announced the cessation of the marketing of the Decléor brand, a house that is part of the L'Oréal Dermatological Beauty division. The French brand had been acquired in 2014 from the Japanese group Shiseido. Just under ten years ago, the operation was considered promising as it was supposed to allow L'Oréal to make progress in the professional beauty market (the brand is mainly intended for spas and beauty institutes). The purchase of Decléor had occurred at the same time as the acquisition of the Carita brand, which has since become part of the L'Oréal Luxe division. At the time of the acquisition by the global giant, Carita and Decléor had a total turnover of nearly 100 million euros. The amount paid by L'Oréal reached nearly 230 million euros.

While Carita has been very successful with the wealthiest clientele, this has not been the case for Decléor, founded in 1974 by beautician Solange Dessimoulie, and then absorbed by Shiseido twelve years later. Faced with results that did not meet expectations, L'Oréal has decided to give up. Considered the first brand to position itself in the field of aromatherapy, Decléor has not managed to establish itself in the face of increasing competition in the segment. The group has announced that it will cease its distribution by the end of 2024.

Decléor is not the only brand that has seen the global leader disengage from business. In early October, L'Oréal sold another of its brands dedicated to dermatological beauty, Sanoflore, which was sold to Ekkio Capital and Sergio Calandri (the new CEO of the brand and founder of the Inula group). The reasons for the sale are roughly the same: despite good turnover figures (in 2021, turnover reached 2.98 million euros), the brand distributed in pharmacies and in the organic circuit had not managed to win over its audience.

L'Oréal now expresses its intention to maintain a strong and competitive portfolio, with complementary brands, by focusing its energies on promoting brands capable of displaying a very strong identity such as La Roche-Posay, SkinCeuticals, or Vichy.