L’Oréal’s quarterly sales rise by 11.9%
· BehindLines newsroom
L’Oréal announced on 22 October that its sales increased in the third quarter of 2026. AFP reports revenue of about €11.6 billion for the three months ending in September, up 11.9% from a year earlier. Sales grew across all four of the group’s divisions.
Sales above the cited expectations
Dow Jones puts quarterly revenue at €11.56 billion, compared with the €11.23 billion average of estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. That benchmark is the one cited by the agency, rather than a forecast produced by this publication.
The group, whose brands include Maybelline, Garnier and La Roche-Posay, also posted quarterly like-for-like growth of 7.2%, Dow Jones notes. This measure removes changes in the scope of the business and exchange-rate movements. It therefore answers a different question from the increase in reported revenue.
A further adjustment to distinguish
L’Oréal’s table gives a third measure for July to September: adjusted like-for-like growth of 7.7%. This adjustment concerns the timing of effects from its IT transformation. It does not turn the 7.2% like-for-like rate into reported growth, nor is it an additional result to be added to the others.
For January to September as a whole, the group’s table lists revenue of €35,337.6 million. Growth was 6.9% like-for-like and 7.7% on a reported basis. The same 7.7% rate thus appears for two different periods and measures: the adjusted quarter and the reported nine months.
The full-year outlook remains open
According to AFP, L’Oréal chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus reiterated his confidence in another year of growth in sales and profit, without giving an amount. That statement expresses management’s outlook. Revenue already recorded does not, on its own, establish what the final profit for 2026 will be.