Clarins Group foresees 30% increase in its sales in Brazil
Valor Econômico 04/22/2009
"Lipstick is crisis-proof!" The sentence was said by one of the members of Estée and Joseph Lauder family, the mythological founders of the leading brand of the cosmetics market, but it fits the optimism of Gérard Delcour, international CEO of the French group Clarins, owner of the perfume Azzaro, like a glove. Travelling through Brazil last week to prepare the launching of Twin - a perfume aimed at the teen segment - in the country, he said the sale of his products increased 16.6% in the Brazilian market in 2008 and that he expects a 30% increase this year, irrespective of the crisis. These are percentages of growth above those verified by the sector in the country that, according to Delcour, increased 12% last year and should sell up to 5% more this year.
According to Delcour, the difficulties experienced in Europe and in the United States do not affect Canada and, even less, South America and, definitely do not affect Brazil. What the Clarins group has observed here, according to him, is a population with more and more purchasing power, thanks to the growth of the middle class seen in the last years of economic development. And driven by the success of Azzaro Pour Homme, the Clarins group does not ignore that. Amid a year of crisis, it plans gaining one position in the Brazilian ranking of perfumes, going from fourth to third place, only behind Carolina Herrera e Christian Dior. Brazil, according to the analysis of the Clarins CEO, is also in the first line of expansion of the perfumes and cosmetics throughout the world. According to his projections, in five years the group of the so-called Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be responsible for 60% of the growth of the perfumes and cosmetics market. Today, they are responsible for only nearly 10% of the global market. A market that after many years growing at a rate between 4% and 6% a year may fall 5% in 2009. In the most optimistic case, it will be stable. But Delcour expects a very fast recovery, beginning with the appearance of new opportunities in those four countries and in others less qualified from South America, Asia and Africa, that had also been showing accelerated growth.