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Company History:
L'Oréal, one of the largest companies in France, is the world's largest manufacturer of high-quality cosmetics and perfumes, producing such well-known brands as Lancôme, Ambre Solaire, and Cacharel. Its total sales are &Dollar;2.4 billion ahead of those of its closest competitor, Unilerver, an more than double those of Revlon and Shiseido. It boasts a world-wide distribution network as well as the industry's highest research-and-development budget and the largest cosmetological laboratories in the world.
L'Oréal's story begins in turn-of-the-century Paris, at a time when women of the demi-monde dyed their hair, their choice restricted to fiery red or coal black. In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young chemist, began to concoct the first synthetic hair dyes by night in his kitchen and sell them to hair salons in the morning under the brand name Auréole. His strategy was successful; within two years he established the Société Francaise des Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux, which soon afterward became L'Oréal.
In 1912, the company extended its sales to Austria, Holland and Italy and by 1920 its products were available in a total of 17 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Equador, Bolivia, and the Soviet Union, and in the Far East. At this stage, L'Oréal consisted of three research chemists and ten sales representatives.
Schueller's timing had been singularly fortunate. The end of World War I was celebrated by the Jazz Age, when short hairstyles became fashionable, with a new emphasis on shape and color. By the end of the 1920s, there were 40,000 hair salons in France alone and L'Oréal's new products O'Cap, Imédia Liquide, and Coloral captured ...