L’Oréal to Stop Commercializing Decléor
PARIS — L’Oréal is ceasing the commercialization of Decléor, the French beauty brand it acquired in 2014.
“L’Oréal has a portfolio of complementary brands. The group’s strategy is to acquire and, sometimes, exit brands, to keep a very strong portfolio and the complementarity it needs to thrive over the long term,” the group said in a statement.
More from WWD
“The success of L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty is based on a strategy and a business model focused on brands prescribed by health care professionals. Under these conditions, the division has decided to stop the commercialization of Decléor,” L’Oréal continued.
Further details could not be learned.
The news comes less than three weeks after L’Oréal said it was exiting its investment in Sanoflore, a green beauty brand it acquired in 2006. That, too, had been part of the group’s Dermatological Beauty division.
L’Oréal acquired Decléor and Carita together from Shiseido Co. Ltd. for 227.5 million euros in April 2014.
At the time, both brands were distributed in professional and retail channels, particularly in Europe. The duo generated sales of approximately 100 million euros in 2012, which gave them together a number two rank in the global professional skin care market across beauty institutes, spas and salons.
Decléor and Carita were first moved into L’Oréal’s Professional Products division, with the aim of growing them internationally. But then the market evolved and professional hair care businesses had to reinvent themselves, so Decléor and Carita were put to other divisions. Decléor ultimately ended up in the Dermatological Beauty division and Carita in L’Oréal Luxe.
Around seven years ago, L’Oréal began segueing Decléor, a predominantly spa brand founded in 1974 by Solange Dessimoulie, into more of a consumer-facing skin care line, as well. Shaping its messaging were the pillars of Decléor — skin, body and mind.
At Decléor’s peak, it was rumored that one bottle of Aromessence serum — the brand’s anchor product — was sold every 30 seconds. The amber-colored ampoule was a staple in French beauty institutes.
L’Oréal’s ultimate goal was to build Decléor into a hybrid consumer-and-spa brand, for it to be carried in both speciality retailers and professional spas, where the brand’s products were used.
But the coronavirus pandemic struck and with it, shifting consumer beauty habits. The quest for well-being using doctor-backed brands amplified, while the holistic well-being beauty market, centered on plant-based products, became increasingly competitive. Concurrently, the demand for prestige beauty grew strongly.
As Decléor lost traction, Carita was being built up into an ever more high-end luxury brand. Its relaunch started in January 2022, with the reworking and premiumization of its 20 stock keeping unit product offer centered around face care, with new formulations, packaging, protocols and technology.
A key part of Carita’s repositioning was the reopening of the brand’s “Maison de Beauté” — a streamlined, arch- and light-filled beauty institute, standing on Paris’ tony Faubourg Saint Saint-Honoré.
Like Decléor, Carita was founded in France, by sisters Maria and Rosy Carita, in 1952.
The L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty division, which includes brands La Roche-Posay, Vichy, CeraVe and SkinCeuticals, has been homing in on health care-prescribed brands. The branch’s most recent acquisition, last year, was of Skinbetter Science, a physician-dispensed, U.S.-based skin care brand.
Best of WWD
