Marcos Iriarte Madrid
Alberto Di Lolli (graphic report)
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In 1935, when for most French people going on vacation was still a pipe dream, Eugène Schueller put an oil on sale to protect the skin from the sun. He called it Ambre Solaire. Just a year later, Léon Blum's Popular Front approved two weeks of paid rest by law, for the first time in the country's history, and hundreds of thousands of workers packed their bags enthusiastically. The founder of L'Oréal had gotten ahead of the holiday revolution and reaped its bountiful rewards in sales of his sunscreen. It was not his first bet: that business empire had begun with a hair dye that the chemist Schueller prepared at night in the kitchen of his Paris apartment and sold personally during the day to hairdressers, door to door. More than a century later, the company is still trying to get there before everyone else. Only now, instead of anticipating the arrival of vacationers to the beaches, it has to decipher the impact of artificial intelligence, new forms of consumption and regulation that is beginning to weigh on innovation.
Ana Jaureguizar (California, 1976) assumed the presidency of L'Oréal Spain and Portugal in July after two decades in the group. He replaced Juan Alonso de Lomas, who had spent 28 years at the multinational. Jaureguizar now takes the reins of one of the most dynamic subsidiaries of the French giant, with two factories in Spain, and with the beauty sector growing both in value and volume in the midst of the inflationary crisis. The directive admits that European regulation reduces their agility and ensures that 70% of the R&D budget today is allocated to adapting to the standards. While AI accelerates research, Jaureguizar wants to preserve the transformation capacity that turned an artisanal dye into a global giant.
He has been at L'Oréal for 20 years and has now assumed maximum responsibility in Spain and Portugal. What are you clear about that you want to change?
I have been fortunate to receive a subsidiary in very good health and I am clear that I want to maintain that leadership of Spain. It is considered one of the best subsidiaries of the group from a point of view of talent, cooperation, growth and innovation. I hope that when I leave, the same image of Spain as one of the best subsidiaries of the group will be maintained.
But where do you want your personal stamp to be seen? What is your acting priority right now?
My obsession is always to transform the companies or teams I work in to adapt to change. At L'Oréal we often say that we like to catch things before they start. I would like us to always be there, seeing what is going to change to transform the company and maximize the possibilities that the market gives us.
L'Oréal grows as a group above the average in the beauty sector. I know they don't break down figures by market, but does Spain do it too?
I cannot give precise figures, but I can say that Spain and Portugal are one of the subsidiaries that is growing the most.
Portugal too?
It is also important to talk about Portugal because it is undergoing a very important transformation and is contributing growth above its weight. Together, we are bringing significant growth to L'Oréal. We are one of the most dynamic subsidiaries. We can even compare ourselves with countries in Latin America or Asia.
What weight does the Iberian market have within the group?
It is the fourth market in Europe, according to Stanpa and the studies we have done. We are one of the largest contributors in Europe and one of the top five globally.
What engines are driving this growth in Spain?
I would say four things. The first, categories that are growing a lot due to consumer interest, especially hair care. Fragrances, specifically in Spain, because the consumer considers them an accessible luxury. The treatment, because there is a conjunction between health and beauty that is making this category grow a lot. On the other hand, we are a country that has a population growth above the rest of Europe and that benefits us. In addition, we are attracting consumers for whom beauty is very important and we are a country that attracts tourism, and tourism in the beauty market is key.
Are L'Oréal's investments in Spain going to grow with you at the helm?
They are already very important. First, we are one of the main contributors to the group in talent, which implies that they are investing in human resources here, in attracting talent and recruiting young people. We are one of the companies that recruits the most young people. Second, we have two factories, one in Burgos and one in Alcalá. The one in Burgos, especially, is one of the group's main factories. We have 21 around the world and Burgos exports to more than 50 countries. 80% of its production is exported.
They have also gained weight in Madrid...
Yes. We have created a shared services center that is giving us an important competitive advantage, from where we serve Europe in finance, data and digital services in Madrid. This center is growing a lot, which shows that the group is investing in Spain from a production and talent point of view.
You have not answered me if these investments will grow more with you at the helm...
I hope so. I'm going to fight him.
Beauty has proven to be a sector very resistant to inflation and loss of purchasing power. Because?
Reality shows us that the consumer does indeed consume beauty. We are also seeing growth not only in value, but also in volume, which is accelerating in recent months. It is quite surprising us because historically it was a market that grew a lot in value, but now it is also growing a lot in volume. We are growing twice the GDP, 5.8% in 2025 in Spain, as an industry, not as a company. I believe that for the consumer it is a way to treat themselves, to take care of themselves.
Today's consumer is more expert. That must pose challenges for you.
It must be recognized that social networks have had an impact on the fact that many conversations are being had around our products. It makes people have an interest and knowledge that makes them enter the sector. It happens to us in treatment and it also happens a lot to us in hair care. They are more experts.
You have been in charge of L'Oréal Luxe and also its FMCG division. Where is the Spanish consumer growing the most at a time of price tension like the current one?
You would be surprised. It is growing in everything, it is growing in the selective and it is also growing in mass consumption. And in mass consumption, as I said, it is growing in volume. In the end our products are mass consumption, but they are still care products and where people treat themselves. Both selective and mass consumption are growing.
How are geopolitical instability and supply chain problems affecting you?
Spain continues to be a great exporter in the industry. Beauty continues to be one of the industries where Europe is a leader. Five of the world's seven leading beauty companies are in Europe. We have a large part of our production here and we are a large exporter of products, especially perfumes. Exports have performed well in recent years despite the context.
How do you protect yourself against these risks?
We have a competitive advantage: both research centers and production centers are quite geographically diversified. We have centers in 21 countries, many of them in Europe, because much of the production is done in Europe, but we also have them in Latin America, Asia and the United States, which diversifies quite a bit.
Europe has set out to regain competitiveness. Is the weight of regulation still an obstacle?
That European legislation is demanding gives us a competitive advantage. In the end, our products, because they comply with European legislation, will be high quality products. Indeed, this has a limit. We want the legislation to be fair, to allow us to react in time, to be based on science. We are working with all stakeholders to allow us to maintain competitiveness. Right now, practically 70% of the budget we make in R&D is dedicated to adapting to legislation. It can become an impediment for us to be competitive. We are having competition from outside and there could come a time when it harms us compared to other countries and continents.
Do you perceive that Europe is reacting?
Things are moving and we are also working with the institutions to do so. What I would like here, and maybe I don't know if I should say it, is for Spain to move a little more.
In what sense?
We see other countries that are reacting in Europe and are stopping some legislation that needs to be worked on. I think that Spain would have to be even more vocal and defend the industry more, which is a key industry for the country. We are the second largest exporter of perfumes after France. The beauty industry is very important for Spain and I believe that Spain has to play a leading role in Europe.
Is it more difficult to build a brand today, with competition from Shein, Amazon... but also TikTok?
You build a brand in a different way, but I wouldn't say it's more difficult. In fact, we launched many new brands that we managed to build relatively quickly using new channels, such as social networks or digital marketing. You can continue building a brand and we demonstrate it with all the brands that we are adding to our portfolio.
Does competition force you to reinvent yourself?
Competition is healthy. We are a multinational, but we like to work as an entrepreneurial company. That is a bit of the mandate from Paris: we have to be entrepreneurial. Buying new brands or new trends make us adapt. It is what has allowed us to remain here for 115 years, that we have been able to adapt to new trends very quickly.
This summer there has been a lot of talk about the fall of 'influencers'. How healthy do you see this phenomenon?
We have to make a combination of all the levers we have right now. We have the vocation to work with the people with whom we have historically worked and who are the ones who give strength to our brands. We work with pharmacists and aesthetic doctors, we do clinical studies with them, we train them, we go to conferences and do very specific research in Spain. We work with hairdressers very closely. We have signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to develop specific training for them. We have a training center to also help them develop their own business...
And the 'influencers'?
They are one more element on which we rely, but that does not mean that for us the center continues to be our historical partners, with whom we continue to invest and work and who are the ones who create long-term value.
For you, is it a phenomenon that has exhausted its potential or is it still developing?
They will probably be in transformation. Increasingly it is a market that we measure with return on investment. It is a market in transformation, super young. What is going to happen? It will probably change. In what direction? We'll see. Probably in a direction that is best for the consumer, where they have the best information in the most reliable way. I'm quite optimistic, but I'm sure it will continue.
How is AI transforming the beauty business?
We believe it can greatly accelerate the industry. We have been using it for a long time in research. We have digital twins, a database of more than 1,800 formulas, a huge database of raw materials, consumer data and more than 115 years of existing in this market. This has allowed us to significantly accelerate our ability to innovate.
Can you give an example?
In the last ten years we have multiplied by three the capacity to launch new molecules. You know that each molecule has to undergo more or less, or each formula, around 100 tests for it to go on the market and be considered safe and appropriate. Now we do it in half the time of what we did before.
They also use it in marketing, but they have set certain limits, right?
We have created a tool called Createch, which allows us to generate images. From an ethical point of view we have decided that we are not going to create human images using AI for external communications, but we do create packaging images with AI and it has helped us a lot in the marketing teams.
How do you prepare your employees?
We have a closed AI environment in which we are training our teams, including allowing them to understand what level of expertise they have with specific exams. We want AI to amplify employee capabilities. We believe that it can also be very powerful for our employees. And from an external point of view we believe that the use of LLM and agentic commerce is going to be a very substantial change to which we are still adapting. We are starting.
There is a big debate about the impact of AI on employment. Could you end up eliminating positions at L'Oréal?
For now, our goal, because we are always focused on growth, is to increase the capacity of our employees. It must also be taken into account that employees convey that there is a need to simplify the ways of working and improve their work capacity. Our goal is to find ways to help them so that they can dedicate their time to what really creates value, which is being close to the consumer, close to the point of sale and our stakeholders. That's what we're focusing on: what tasks we can work on to make work easier for our employees.
Are you having trouble finding talent?
L'Oréal has the capacity in Spain and Portugal to attract a lot of talent. We are lucky to have a team of incredible quality and I wouldn't say we have a problem with that. What's more, we are one of the countries where we manage to attract the most talent and with a very good image as employers.
How much does online sales already weigh? Is the time approaching when it will be the main channel?
We are still far away. In the group as a whole it represents 30% of sales. In Spain we are still far from that 30%.
Why physical commerce r
