From Wikicompany

The L'Oréal Group (Euronext: l'Oreal) is the world's largest company in the personal care sector.

L'Oréal has operations in over 130 countries, employing 50,500 people, 24% of which work in France. The company operates 42 manufacturing plants throughout the world, which employ 14,000 people.

L'Oréal has 5 worldwide research and development centers. 2 in France: Aulnay and Chevilly. 1 in the US: Clark, New Jersey. 1 in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa. 1 in Shanghai, China.

L'Oréal has developed activities in the field of:

• cosmetics
• make-up
• hair care
• hair color concentrate
• skin care
• sun protection
• perfumes and eaux de toilette

L'Oréal is also active in the dermatological and pharmaceutical fields.

Business

Stockholders

• Breakdown of share ownership: 27.5% by the Bettencourt Family, 26.4% by Nestlé, 3.9% treasury shares, the remaining 42.2% are publically traded.

• Voting rights distribution: 28.6% to the Bettencourt Family, 27.5% to Nestlé, and 43.9% to the public.

Joint ventures and minority interests

• L'Oréal holds 10.41% of the shares of Sanofi Aventis, the world's number 3 and Europe's number 1 pharmaceutical company.

• The Laboratoires Inneov is a joint venture in nutritional cosmetics between L'Oréal and Nestlé; they draw on L'Oréal's know-how in the fields of nutrition and food safety.

• Galderma is another joint venture in dermatology between L'Oréal and Nestlé.

History

In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his new, perfectly safe hair dye Auréole. With that, the history of L'Oréal began. Eugène Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then sold to Parisian hairdressers.

In 1909, Schueller registered his company, the "Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux", the future L'Oréal. The guiding principles of the company that would become L'Oréal were put into place from the start: research and innovation in the interest of beauty.

In 1920, the small company already employed 3 chemists.

By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today.

L'Oréal got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing/beauty products. L'Oréal now markets over 500 brands and more than 2,000 products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, styling aids, body and skin care, cleansers and fragrances. They are found in all distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hyper- and supermarkets, health/beauty outlets and direct mail.

Schueller died in 1957 and the company was passed to his daughter Liliane Bettencourt. Schueller's right-hand man François Dalle took the helm and sailed the company overseas to the growing market in US.

L'Oréal purchased Synthélabo in 1973 to pursue ambition in the pharmaceutical field.

Owen-Jones became chairman and CEO in 1988.

Synthélabo merged with Sanofi in 1999 to become Sanofi-Synthélabo.

Sanofi-Synthélabo merged with Aventis in 2004 to become Sanofi Aventis.

In 2005, a research and development center established in China: Shanghai.