Beauty retail giant L’Occitane International has reported unaudited sales of €843.4 million (US$912 million) for the quarter ended December 31, up 19.5 per cent. 

Revenue for the nine months reached $2 billion, surging 18.9 per cent year on year. The company said the growth was mainly driven by “the continued outperformance of Sol de Janeiro, the decent performance of Elemis and the steady growth of L’occitane en Provence in China”.

Sales in Asia Pacific were down 3.8 per cent year on year during the period, from $342.7 million to $333.1 million due to foreign currency translation effects. Meanwhile, sales in the Americas and EMEA increased 64.5 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively. 

“We delivered a decent holiday season, which enabled us to maintain our growth momentum and relative outperformance in the premium beauty market in China and other key markets,” said Andre Hoffmann, vice-chairman and CEO of L’Occitane. “It was also pleasing to see Elemis return to growth in light of our ongoing premiumisation strategy to support its long-term profitability.

“We will continue to build on the accelerating growth of Sol de Janeiro as we steadily expand its product and category range and the scale and reach of its distribution. We will also further build on the healthy growth of other brands, including our recently acquired luxury home fragrance brand, Dr Vranjes Firenze, to round out our portfolio.”

Earlier this month, the beauty group appointed its MD Laurent Marteau as its new group CEO, combining responsibilities of both roles into one.