On Tuesday evening, the L’Oréal subsidiary closed its retail operations in Canada. And in his remarks to the press, Frank Kollmar, President and CEO of L'Oréal Canada, explains that “For several weeks, we have been monitoring the evolution of the situation and taking all the necessary measures to ensure our employees and customers' safety. This is my absolute primary concern, the one of the Management Committee as well as the L'Oréal Group’s.”
“I am particularly impressed,” adds Kollmar, “by the sense of responsibility, the resilience, fighting spirit and solidarity that our teams have demonstrated for the past several weeks.”
Makeup, skin care, and fragrance sales go online
Loreal’s retail beauty and skin care stores in Canada such as Kiehl’s, NYX Professional Makeup, and Atelier Cologne are all closed now and will remain closed until the treat of COVID-19 has passed.
The company is encouraging consumers to shop online for Kiehl’s and NYX cosmetics in the interim.
Corporate employees have an option to go home
The company also operates a headquarters in Montreal, a hair-color manufacturing facility in that same city, and a substantial distribution center as well that, according to the L’Oréal Canada website, fulfills over 834,000 orders annually.
To keep the country and the company’s employees safe, “L'Oréal Canada strictly complies with the measures taken by the provincial and federal authorities,” emphasizes this week’s press release, announcing the retail store closures.
“In addition, specific precautions suited to its activities have been applied for its 1,450 employees across Canada, such as a travel ban; postponement of all major events, implementation of virtual meetings and optional work-from-home policy,” states the release.
L’Oréal is not alone
Countless beauty retailers have closed their doors in and beyond the Americas region this month. Closers have come for Lush Cosmetics, Glossier, Benefit Cosmetics, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, even department stores like Macy’s.
And of course, the industry at large has also been drastically impacted by the realities of the CoronaVirus pandemic. Read more here on CosmeticsDesign.com.
---
Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders.
