Shiseido is #5 on this year's list of Top Global Beauty Companies.

Below is a look at the company's 2019 highlights, recent acquisitions, best-selling brands and latest innovations.

Beauty Sales

$9.9 billion

Key Personnel

• Masahiko Uotani, president and chief executive officer
• Shigekazu Sugiyama, chief executive officer, Japan region and president, Shiseido Japan Co., Ltd.
• Norio Tadakawa, chief supply network officer
• Jean-Philippe Charrier, chief executive officer, Asia Pacific region and president, Shiseido Asia Pacific
• Kentaro Fujiwara, chief executive officer, China region and chairman and president, Shiseido China Co.
• Kiyomi Horii, chief beauty strategy officer
• Katsunori Yoshida, chief product development officer.

Major Products/Brands

Prestige Skincare, Cosmetics, Fragrances and Personal Care including:

• Shiseido, Clé de Peau Beauté, BareMinerals
• Buxom, Nars, IPSA
• Laura Mercier, Benefique, Dolce & Gabbana
• Issey Miyake and Narciso Rodriguez, Elixir, Maquillage
• Haku, Prior, Anessa
• Aqualabel, Integrate, D Program
• Aupres, Urara, Pure & Mild
• Za, Senka, Tsubaki
• Sea Breeze, Joico MatchCo.
• Drunk Elephant (as of 10-2019)

New Products

• Shiseido Benefiance wrinkle smoothing eye cream
• ColorGel lip balm, Sports HydroBB compact
• Ultimune Eye power infusing eye concentrate
• Waso beauty sleeping mask
• Nars Mini Radiant creamy concealer
• Narsissist Wanted mini eyeshadow
• Clé de Peau Wrinkle Smoothing Serum Supreme
• Enhancing Eye Contour Cream Supreme
• Narciso Eau De Parfum Rouge.

Comments

Unifying under the new mission statement, “Beauty Innovations For A Better World,” 2018 saw Shiseido boldly achieve its VISION 2020 sales and profit targets two years ahead of schedule. Net sales grew 8.8% to $9.9 billion, driven by the prestige category which was bolstered by strategic investments.

Each of Shiseido’s major business categories posted impressive gains in fiscal 2018. According to the company, prestige brands like Shiseido, Clé de Peau Beauté and Nars and Laura Mercier accounted for 45% (+16%) of the company’s total sales, followed by cosmetics 31% (+12%), fragrance 9% (+9%), personal care 9% (+12%) and professional products 2% (+4%).

Regionally, Japan accounted for 41.6% of net sales (+9%), with China ranking a distant second with 17.4% of sales (+32.3%), followed by Americas at 12% (-0.4%). Shiseido said the growth of sales in Japan was particularly noteworthy considering the cosmetics market is only expanding at a 1% rate. The top performers responsible for this achievement included Ultimune serum and Elixir lotions and moisturizers. Gains in China came from top brands spanning Shiseido, Clé de Peau Beauté Ipsa and Nars, and also “Made in Japan” brands including Elixir and Anessa.

EEMEA 10.3% (+1.4%), Travel Retail 8.0%; (+35.4%), Asia-Pacific 6.2% (+13.1%), Other 2.6% (+0.8%); and Professional 1.9% (-57.7%) rounded out the company’s global sales reach.

In his address to shareholders, president and CEO Masahiko Uotani affirmed Shiseido was about more than simply selling cosmetics. Its corporate value is “a synergistic combination of economic and social values.” To that end, the company launched a new mission statement, “Beauty Innovations for a Better World,” to further a vision of developing innovations that are in step with “contributing to society and the people of the future.”

To that end, in May the company joined the Sustainable Packaging Initiative for Cosmetics (SPICE), co-founded by L’Oréal and environmental sustainability consulting firm Quantis, with the goal of collectively guiding sustainable packaging policies, driving packaging launches and innovation, and meeting consumer expectations on understanding the environmental performance of products.

In October the company also completed construction on its new Shiseido Global Innovation Center, a research hub in Yokohama that began operating full-scale this spring.

News of Note in 2019

It will be a busy 2019 for Shiseido. For starters, the company announced it would aim for a net sales increase of 9% (local currency basis), to ¥1,172.0 billion (about $11 billion USD), and an operating profit increase of 10.8% to ¥120.0 billion (about $1.4 billion USD). So far, the company’s most recent quarterly results are trending in the right direction: net sales were up 6% year-on-year to ¥564.6 billion (about $79.5 billion USD) compared with ¥532,596 billion (about $75 billion USD), for the same period. Meanwhile, its net profit per yen grew 10%, despite its operating profit taking a 3% hit, due to marketing investments. The company pointed to strong growth in the Chinese region, which has posted a 22% sales increase since Q1. Sales growth was also robust in the travel retail sector, which saw net sales surge almost 25% for the second quarter, driven largely by the Shiseido, Nars and Anessa brands.

On the packaging front, in May the company partnered with Kaneka to co-develop biodegradable polymer cosmetics packaging made of “Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer PHBH” with the goal of helping solve the problem of ocean plastics. According to Kaneka, PHBH is a 100% plant-based biopolymer—and delivers “excellent” biodegradability under different environmental conditions.

Looking Ahead

Uotani said in light of reaching its Vision 2020 goals so far ahead of schedule, the goals have been revised. The company is now working toward “achieving two trillion yen in sales and 300 billion yen in operating profit as ambitious long-term targets.”

Read Next: Coty is #6