Estée Lauder sales rise in full year results

The Estée Lauder Companies has released its financial results for the year ending 30 June 2022, revealing a 9% increase in net sales to £14.7 billion ($17.74 billion).

This growth was largely driven by the Americas and EMEA region, reflecting a recovery in brick-and-mortar retail stores, as well as growth in online and travel retail.  Revenue for the EMEA region increased 12% to £6.2 billion ($7.6 billion), led by the UK.

Skincare net sales were up 4% to £8.1 billion ($9.8 billion), driven by growth from La Mer, Clinique and Bobbi Brown. However, this was offset by a decline from Estée Lauder in the second half of FY22 due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Asia that led to increased restrictions.

Makeup net sales increased 12% to £3.8 billion ($4.6 billion), reflecting continued recovery in western markets and driven by MAC Cosmetics and Estée Lauder.

Fragrance net sales were up 32% to £2 billion ($2.5 billion), boosted by sales in "every region and every fragrance brand" including Jo Malone London, Tom Ford Beauty and Le Labo.

Haircare net sales grew 12% to £522 million ($631 million), driven by Aveda and Bumble & bumble as global brick-and-mortar recovered from prior-year closures related to COVID-19.

Looking ahead to FY23, the Estée Lauder Companies expect net sales to increase between 3% and 5%. The group also hopes to see more balanced growth across categories, regions and channels as the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions begin to abate.

Fabrizio Freda, President and CEO of ELC, said: “We delivered excellent results in fiscal 2022, exceeding our expectations in the fourth quarter and achieving record revenue and profitability on an adjusted basis for the year.

Our multiple engines of growth strategy proved invaluable amid pandemic and macro complexity, affording us the diversification to seize growth of the moment. Brick-and-mortar and online each grew globally, as we capitalised on reopenings, extended our consumer reach in high-growth channels and amplified our omni-channel capabilities.”