Operations: driving value chain excellence

L’Oréal Operations acts as the Group’s agile operational engine, continuously adapting for supply and demand, at speed and scale, in support of the Group’s 40 brands. Driven by a culture of operational excellence, our global footprint allows us to design, procure and manufacture products closer to our consumers, depending on the category, and ensure efficient, responsive distribution.

In 2025, we restructured dermocosmetic manufacturing for brands like La Roche-Posay and CeraVe into an interconnected global network, with new skincare lines for CeraVe now implemented in our Saint-Quentin plant in France. To cater for the growing fragrance market, we invested more than €60 million into our plant in Gauchy, doubling its production capacity. In the United States, the North Little Rock plant, which celebrated 50 years of continuous service, has become L’Oréal’s largest global colour cosmetics manufacturing facility.

Operational excellence is supported by data, technology and AI. Targeted AI applications, such as advanced visual monitoring systems in plants, and smart inventory planning tools enhance precision and efficiency. These advanced tools also bolster distribution capabilities. Our Suzhou Fulfillment Centre in China achieved a new record in 2025 by dispatching 157,000 parcels within 24 hours, demonstrating the impact of intelligent systems in high-volume logistics.

Operations is a driving force for advancing L’Oréal for the Future sustainability commitments. A landmark achievement this year has been successfully reaching 100% renewable energy for all our operated sites and stores, fulfilling one of the Group’s core objectives. This significant milestone underscores L’Oréal’s unwavering commitment to fighting climate change and is a testament to strategic investments in renewable energy sources, robust energy conservation and efficiency measures across global operations.

Beyond our direct footprint, Operations plays a leading role in extending this ambition across the Group’s value chain. We actively engage and accompany our suppliers, offering support and expertise to help them accelerate their own decarbonisation trajectories and adopt more sustainable practices. We also have a strong, action-oriented supplier engagement programme with Spread the Green Vibes. In 2025, L’Oréal was named Supplier Engagement Leader by CDP for the seventh consecutive year, with over 50% of our strategic suppliers now SBTi approved. Our long-term commitments also directly contribute to reducing our carbon footprint, optimising resource preservation and pioneering sustainable production methods.

Beyond products, L’Oréal Operations teams aim to bring positive impact to lives and livelihoods through diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and responsible sourcing practices.

The diversity of our teams is a valuable asset driving the Group’s strong social and economic performance. Operations teams reflect this with a well-balanced gender workforce – 47% women and 53% men – representing 144 different nationalities. Internally, we continue to implement programmes promoting inclusion. The GLORIA programme in France has facilitated the professional integration of employees with autism spectrum disorders into three plants, as well as raising awareness among employees about disability issues.

Externally, our Inclusive Sourcing programme supports and encourages our suppliers in providing employment opportunities to individuals who are typically excluded from the labour market. In India for instance, L’Oréal supports women’s access to IT and supply chain roles through pilot projects, benefitting 15,000 people in 2025. Our ambition is to scale these programmes up to increase fair working conditions, human rights and ethical labour practices. Recognising the complexity of global supply chains, we actively engage with international coalitions such as the Fair Labor Association, of which L’Oréal has been a member since 2024. These partnerships allow us to collaborate on broader initiatives dedicated to promoting human rights, living wages, combatting child labour, and protecting workers from risks to their well-being across the value chain.

The Development and Packaging teams within Operations are pioneering solutions that prioritise the consumer experience through cutting-edge design and material science. Combining internal and external expertise, the teams leverage new materials, processing methods and artificial intelligence to design and develop smart packaging that ensures product protection, enriched consumer experiences and reduced environmental impact.

A core focus is resource preservation, reflecting the Group’s ambition to reduce virgin plastic use in half by 2030, and to source 50% of all materials from recycled or bio-based origins. This innovative approach to design is illustrated by the redesigned Ushuaïa shower gel bottle: it uses 18% less plastic and is made of 100% recycled plastic.

External partnerships help us accelerate sustainable packaging innovation. Examples of recent collaborations include work with Sulapac for cosmetic pencils made from bio-based plastic and development work with Blue Ocean Closures for molded fiber caps.

L’Oréal Operations teams are accelerating design and development of refill options to support L’Oréal’s 2030 ambition of reducing packaging intensity by 20%. Refill offers are available across all product categories – from fragrance refills to refillable haircare packs and bodycare refill pouches. In 2025, the dedicated work of our teams contributed to expanding the Group’s refill offerings across its brands, making sustainable choices more widely available to consumers.