BATAVIA, Ohio—Whether or not the personal care industry expected prestige personal care products to flourish, they are. Adage.com reported prestige and ultra-prestige beauty products are flexing their market muscles. Estee Lauder is taking the reins with a 14-percent jump in organic sales, minus currency, acquisitions and divestitures impact. Loreal report a 6-percent organic sales growth, which is more than P&G and Unilever posted, which rang in around 4 percent.
Major department stores such as Macy’s and Nordstroms reported a year over year increase in customer traffic since last quarter, while the U.S. Wal-Mart division reported declines. As Adage.com reported, “The luxury consumer is shopping again, and we are seeing our strategy contribute to ... prestige beauty growing faster than mass in many parts of world," said Estee Lauder CEO Fabrizio Freda, noting U.S. beauty sales in department stores and Sephora grew 4 percent last quarter, according to NPD Group, but the mass channel sales only grew 1 percent.