L'Oréal is positioning its takeover of the Gucci beauty license as its next major luxury growth engine, with executives pointing to the company's track record of transforming fashion houses into blockbuster beauty brands and outlining a roadmap that stretches to the first product launches in early 2028.
Speaking during the company's H1 2026 earnings call, CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said transition work on Gucci will begin in September 2026, giving L'Oréal's teams more than a year to prepare ahead of bringing the brand's next generation of beauty products to market.
"Our teams will kick off the transition in September," Hieronimus said, adding that the company expects to launch its first Gucci products in early 2028.
Hieronimus repeatedly compared Gucci's potential to some of L'Oréal Luxe's biggest success stories.
He cited Yves Saint Laurent Beauty as the company's benchmark, noting that the business has grown into a €3 billion beauty brand that now rivals the scale of its fashion counterpart. He also pointed to Prada Beauty and Valentino Beauty as examples of L'Oréal's ability to rapidly scale luxury fashion brands, saying both expanded from less than €100 million in annual sales to more than €700 million within four to six years under the company's stewardship.
For Hieronimus, Gucci represents an even larger opportunity because the beauty business remains relatively small compared with the strength of the fashion house.
The comments underscore L'Oréal's belief that Gucci remains significantly underdeveloped in beauty and can be expanded using the same playbook applied to other luxury fashion licenses.
