L’Oréal names India as its fifth largest market for professional products

Beauty business L’Oréal has named India as its fifth largest global market for its professional products division which sells products to salons. The business expects continued growth to push India into third position in the category. 

“In India, with 50,000 salons, we are covering 400 cities out of 800,” said L’Oréal’s professional products division president Omar Hajeri in a communication with investors, ET Bureau reported. “We still have a strong untapped potential across the country. We firmly believe that India will soon become our third country worldwide.”
 
India’s young and increasingly middle-class population makes the country an appealing one for beauty brands, keen to tap into Gen Z’s increasing demand for branded beauty goods, even in rural areas. The country’s beauty and personal care market is expanding at a rate twice as fast as its fast moving consumer goods market brands, the Economic Times reported. 

“India and Indonesia alone will see an incremental 250 million people join the global middle class by 2030,” said Hajeri. “And they are quickly becoming very beauty-savvy, looking for increasingly sophisticated beauty routines. And we have what it takes to continue to outperform. Our well-established local footprint enables us to better understand and cater to consumers’ needs.”