In the first half of 2020, the Covid-19 crisis had a strong impact on cosmetics manufacturers, especially SMEs. But over the whole year, cosmetics should suffer less than the rest of the economy, due to the solidity of its fundamentals. Nevertheless, the sector, which is preparing for a strong mobilisation in favour of youth employment, expresses needs and makes proposals within the framework of the recovery plan.

First half of 2020: a globally strong contraction, uneven resilience

The cosmetics sector suffered greatly in the first half of 2020: its sales fell by 10 %, just like all household consumption. But this figure covers wide disparities, since sales of hygiene products jumped by around 50%, while those of beauty products lost 25%.
For their part, exports of cosmetics as well as investments have decreased slightly less than the national average. The fall reached respectively 14 % and 12 % for cosmetics, against 18 % and 16 % on national average.
Finally, if the sector as a whole is characterised by a certain robustness, the VSEs and SMEs in cosmetics, which represent 85 % of the sector, are clearly more vulnerable. VSEs have thus suffered a 54% drop in their turnover, against …