French Cosmetics Market Expected to Rebound in 2022
PARIS — France’s cosmetics market should return to pre-coronavirus levels at home in 2022 and abroad in 2023, according to the Fédération des Entreprises de la Beauté.
“The health crisis led to very contrasted evolutions in the cosmetics market — a rise in the demand for hygiene products and a drop in the beauty market,” said Nicolas Bouzou, an economist and director of market research group Asterès, with which FEBEA teamed up on a study, in a statement.
Bouzou added the country’s cosmetics sector has rebounded quickly.
In the first half of 2020, France’s cosmetics sales dropped 10 percent domestically. Revenues from hygiene products rose steeply, by 50 percent on-year, while those from beauty products fell 25 percent.
“The sale of products linked to socializing — makeup, hair products, perfumes — are down, while daily hygiene products performed well, including since lockdowns were over,” said Patrick O’Quin, president of FEBEA.
Cosmetics exports were down 14 percent, versus 18 percent for the national average of all French products sold abroad.
Small and medium-size cosmetics companies, which represent 85 percent of the sector in France, were the most vulnerable in the period. Their sales plummeted 54 percent in the first six months of 2020, versus those of big groups, which sank 35 percent.
For this full year, it’s expected in France that hygiene product sales will be up 30 percent versus in 2019, while beauty product sales will register a 17 percent decline.
Revenues generated in beauty institutes and spas and in selective distribution, including perfumeries and parapharmacies, should close 2020 down 25 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
Conversely, beauty revenues rung up in mass-market retailers and parapharmacies, which benefit from the demand for hygiene products, should be up 2 percent for the year.
Online beauty revenues are projected to rise 38 percent, although in France they account for only a small percentage of the overall cosmetics business.
For 2020, the country’s cosmetics export sales should shrink 9 percent, which is less than the 17 percent expected for the country’s total product sales abroad. France’s cosmetics exports to the U.S. should be down 10 percent, while they’re foreseen to be up 3 percent in China, the only country in which growth is anticipated.
Meanwhile, French cosmetics sales in the travel-retail channel should decline at least 65 percent for the year.
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