Earlier in the week L'Oreal confirmed that it had bought the Delial sunscreen brand from Sara Lee International for an undisclosed sum.
Delial is currently one of the leading brands in Europe, especially in the domestic Spanish market, where it ranks amongst the top three brands.
Last year Delial's sales came in at around €20 million for a product portfolio that includes a diverse range of sunscreens, after sun and self tanning lotions.
L'Oreal's chief executive of consumer products, Patrick Rabain, said, "The acquisition of this brand means that L'Oreal will reinforce its position in the European solar protection market, especially in southern Europe. The Delial range will join our Garnier portfolio and will benefit from solar filter technologies developed in the group's laboratories."
Meanwhile, following the company's first half sales, published back in mid-July, a more detailed breakdown has been given of the performance. The results are broken down into professional, consumer, luxury, active and other cosmetics and are said to reflect more detailed financial information, in line with IAS regulations.
The company, which had first half sales of €7.16 billion and net profits of €1.11 billion, reported that profits in the luxury division were down from €291.3 million in the first of 2004, to €279.2 million in the first half of 2005.
The biggest rise in profitability was seen in the active cosmetics division. Here sales are being developed from a smaller base, but nevertheless profits were up over 20 per cent to reach €138.5 million, representing a profit margin of 18.6 per cent.
First half profits for consumer products, by far the biggest division with 54 per cent of all sales, rose steadily in the half from €644.8 million, to €668.7 million, representing a profitability of 16.8 per cent.