After the opening in September of subsidiary in Nigeria, L’Oréal opened this week its new Kenyan subsidiary, which will be the hub for expanding its activities in East Africa, in particular in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia.
According to L’Oréal, these dynamic regional markets, with a huge number of potential consumers, should become key components of the group’s growth strategy that aims to conquer a billion new consumers in the next ten to fifteen years.
L’Oréal has been operating in South Africa since 1963, and its presence in the Africa, Middle East zone now comprises nine subsidiaries, a hair and skin care products plant in Midrand, and a Research and Innovation testing centre in Johannesburg. “The three major markets are hair care, particularly straightening and relaxing products - nearly half of women say they use these products once a month - in addition to body care and deodorants,” the group said.
In order to secure its success in this area, L’Oréal can draw on a long history of expertise in African skin and hair. Softsheen-Carson, the world’s number one brand for people of African origin, and Mizani, distributed in hair salons, are the group’s flagship brands for the conquest of new consumers in the region.
