DUBAI: L’Oreal Middle East has confirmed its long-term ambitions in Saudi Arabia with the announcement of expansions in the Kingdom, marked by the opening of a new office.
The news came at the second edition of the L’Oreal For The Future summit, held in Jeddah. The group’s move to strengthen its presence in the Kingdom is underlined by the inauguration of a new office, the development of training programs for Saudi women and the acceleration of refillable products.
“Hosting the Summit in Jeddah demonstrates our commitment to the Kingdom,” Laurent Duffier, managing director of L’Oreal Middle East and Saudi Arabia, said in an interview with Arab News en Francais.
L’Oreal has been present in the Saudi market since the 1960s, with a local subsidiary established in 2012. It recently opened new offices in Jeddah. Saudi Arabia now represents the Gulf’s largest beauty market and a major regional growth engine for the group.
FASTFACT
Highlights
- New office in Jeddah and workforce set to double in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2026
- 2 billion generated and 8,765 jobs supported through L’Oreal’s value chain 150 women certified in hairdressing, with a 70% employment rate
- More than SAR600,000 invested in “Beauty for a Better Life” by the L’Oreal Foundation
- The Middle East was the group’s fifth-largest contributor to global growth in 2025
“We will soon have twice as many employees as we did a year ago. We plan to double our workforce in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2026,” said Duffier. “The Middle East region was the fifth-largest contributor to L’Oreal’s global growth, driven largely by Saudi Arabia.”
He highlighted several structural growth factors: economic expansion, the rise of the middle class, the increasing female workforce participation and strong beauty consumption.
“Saudi Arabia is a dream market for the beauty industry,” he said.
According to the group’s internal studies, Saudi women own an average of 23 makeup products.
The summit also saw L’Oreal present a study measuring its impact in the Kingdom.
Conducted with Asteres, the research showed the group’s value chain generates SAR 3.2 billion for the Saudi economy and supports 8,765 jobs. Its social and educational initiatives have also reportedly benefited more than 35,000 people.
Laurent Duffier, managing director of L’Oréal Middle East and Saudi Arabia. (Supplied)
“We wanted to show the exact figures behind our economic and social impact,” Duffier said.
One of the main pillars of L’Oreal’s ESG strategy in the Kingdom remains women’s economic empowerment. The group announced the opening of its fifth professional hairdressing academy, located within its new Jeddah offices.
Developed in partnership with Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and Effat University, the program aims to address the need for qualified labor in Saudi salons.
“We have already certified 150 women in two years, and 70 percent of them found employment immediately,” Duffier said. “Some have opened their own salons and are now hiring others in turn.”
Accredited by the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation and subsidized by the Human Resources Development Fund, the program aims to certify more than 1,000 women by 2029.
At the same time, the company is expanding its “Beauty for a Better Life” initiative, developed in partnership with the NGO Education for Employment. The primarily digital program aims to train women for careers as beauty advisors. The L’Oreal Foundation has allocated more than SAR600,000 to its development in Saudi Arabia, with 100 graduates expected in 2026.
The group is also continuing to invest in training professionals already active in the market. In 2025, more than 800 hairstylists from L’Oreal partner salons in Saudi Arabia benefited from over 10,000 hours of training delivered by L’Oreal Professionnel institutes.
On the environmental front, the company is placing strong emphasis on refillable products. “Refills are good for the wallet and good for the planet,” Duffier said.
The L’Oréal For The Future Summit highlighted the group’s initiatives in Saudi Arabia around refillable products, vocational training and women’s empowerment. (Supplied)
The group is rolling out multi-brand campaigns as part of its “Join the Refill Movement” initiative to accelerate adoption of the habit across the Kingdom.
However, Duffier acknowledged that the main challenge remained behavioral: “Consumers want to adopt more sustainable habits, but the challenge is turning intention into action,” he said.
Environmental objectives are integrated into the group’s governance and managers’ key performance indicators, particularly through targets linked to the “L’Oreal For the Future” program.
“L’Oreal has been recognized for years with a AAA rating by the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project). We are one of the only companies, if not the only one, to have maintained this rating for 10 consecutive years,” Duffier said. “It demonstrates the seriousness of our commitments, with science-based targets measured very precisely across scopes 1, 2 and 3.”
Despite a regional context marked by economic and logistical tensions, the group remains confident in its outlook.
“Our model helps us absorb shocks,” Duffier explained. “We operate across multiple countries, all beauty categories and all distribution channels. We are optimizing everything we can in Saudi Arabia to fully benefit from market growth while continuing to also invest in the UAE.”
Duffier also referred to the “lipstick effect,” often observed during periods of economic uncertainty. “In difficult times, consumers still want to treat themselves with a fragrance or a lipstick,” he said.
L’Oreal stressed that its investments aligned with the objectives of Vision 2030, particularly in terms of women’s employment, economic diversification and technological development.
“The new Jeddah office marks the beginning of a new era for L’Oreal in Saudi Arabia,” Duffier concluded.
