L'Oreal

The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company and is headquartered in the Paris suburb of Clichy, France. L'Oréal has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care. more...

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L'Oréal is active in the dermatological and pharmaceutical fields. L'Oréal is also the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.

L'Oréal is a listed company, but the founder's daughter Liliane Bettencourt, who is one of the richest people in the world, and the Swiss food company Nestlé each control over a quarter of the shares and voting rights.

History

In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole. With that, the history of L’Oréal began. Eugène Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then sold to Parisian hairdressers.

In 1909, Schueller registered his company, the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux ("Safe Hair Dye Company of France"), the future L’Oréal. The guiding principles of the company that would become L’Oréal were put into place from the start: research and innovation in the interest of beauty.

During the early twentieth century, Schueller provided financial support and held meetings for La Cagoule at L’Oréal headquarters. La Cagoule was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group. L'Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after World War II.

In 1920, the small company employed three chemists. By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today.

L’Oréal got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing and beauty products. L’Oréal now markets over 500 brands and many thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, styling aids, body and skin care, cleansers and fragrances. They are found in all distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hyper - and supermarkets, health/beauty outlets, pharmacies and direct mail.

L’Oréal has five worldwide research and development centers: two in France: Aulnay and Chevilly; one in the U.S.: Clark, New Jersey; one in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; and in 2005, one was established in China, Shanghai.

L’Oréal purchased Synthélabo in 1973 to pursue its ambitions in the pharmaceutical field. Synthélabo merged with Sanofi in 1999 to become Sanofi-Synthélabo. Sanofi-Synthélabo merged with Aventis in 2004 to become Sanofi-Aventis.

On 17 March 2006 L'Oréal made a £652 million agreed takeover of ethical cosmetics company The Body Shop.

L'Oreal has been widely criticized for testing products on animals as recently as the late 90's. Additionally, the company has recently faced discrimination lawsuits in France related to the hiring of spokesmodels. In the UK L'Oreal has faced widespread condemnation from OFCOM regarding truth in their advertising and marketing campaigns concerning the product performance of their mascara brand. Multiple video parodies of their advertising campaigns have spoofed their products and can be viewed on You Tube - search L'Unreal for links to content.

Read more at Wikipedia.org