CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF BEAUTY IN MALAYSIA

Hruska sharing the journey of L’Oréal Malaysia with guests and the media during the company’s 30th anniversary celebration at St Regis, Kuala Lumpur. The theme of the celebration was “Celebrating Three Decades of Beauty’s Transformative Power in Malaysia”. — Photos by YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

WHEN L’Oréal Malaysia first made its foray into the nation 30 years ago, the beauty landscape was a far cry from what it is today.

As global brands began to make their mark and the idea of personalised beauty was still a faraway concept, parent company, L’Oréal Groupe in France was already fast becoming an unrivaled portfolio of brands.

L’Oréal Groupe was founded in 1909 by French chemist Eugène Schueller, who began by developing and selling innovative hair dye formulas to Parisian hairdressers.

It then moved beyond France by the 1920’s, and it soon grew into a global powerhouse, becoming one of the world’s largest cosmetics companies within a few decades.

Continuing this legacy today, L’Oréal Malaysia stands as a leading name in the country’s beauty industry – a position built not just on products, but on redefining beauty for Malaysians.

Its products are formulated and sold under four divisions across 30 different bands.

L’Oréal Malaysia managing director Tomas Hruska says the success of the group here in Malaysia has really been the result of the group’s innovative products and the fact that it has constantly brought these innovations to consumers here.

“Through our different brands and technology, we have brought the best of innovation to our consumers here in Malaysia. The capacity to bring what our consumers need is another factor, because they’re technologically advanced and relevant,” he says to StarBiz 7 in a recent interview.

He adds that beauty is becoming increasingly youthful and has evolved into a form of social expression.

“For these generations, it is part of their well-being, and we’re proud to help them access beauty products while shaping their individuality. It is indeed a vast market with plenty of opportunities and impact,” he points out.

L’Oréal Malaysia offers a diverse portfolio of brands, catering to every beauty need and budget, from luxury indulgence to everyday affordability.

Its products are available almost everywhere, from mall kiosks and standalone stores to pharmacies and mini markets.

Hruska says the group practices something called universalisation – a strategy of being global but respecting local differences.

“This way we can pick up on trends happening everywhere and bring it to certain regions while localising it.”

More than that, Hruska says it is not just the products that shine but what they do overall as a beauty company.

Beauty with responsibility

L’Oréal Malaysia has long been an actor of positive change within the country, having been deeply rooted in the lives of communities around it.

Hruska explains that it is for this exact reason the group unveiled its Socio-economic Impact Report last month, highlighting a number of key contributions to the nation.

The report, which was in conjunction with L’Oréal Malaysia’s 30th anniversary, was produced in collaboration with French research firm Asterès.

Hruska says it was the perfect opportunity to summarise 30 years of commitment to Malaysians.

Some of the key findings in the report included the market value of the beauty industry in Malaysia, which stood at RM13.61bil as of last year.

L’Oréal has remained the top beauty brand in the country, and serves seven million consumers to date.

“This number keeps increasing every day, and we have a goal that it will soon hit 10 million people,” he says.

L’Oréal Malaysia has a workforce of about 590 people, and in accumulation boasts some 4,212 collective years of experience in the industry.

This doesn’t include the hub that involves Singapore, which Hruska also heads.

“Our team in Malaysia consists of four generations, 19 nationalities and is a very young team. Heading these two markets has helped us have a regional focus while subsequently, creating more job opportunities and a bigger scale of things,” he says.

According to the report, 21,609 jobs are supported across the L’Oréal value chain in Malaysia.

Hruska explains that for the 590 employees that are working in the L’Oréal office, there is a multiplier effect of 1 to 36.6 jobs that are generated in the wider economy.

“We are extremely proud of these figures, it is even on the higher side when we compare them with other countries within South-East Asia. If we take all the end-to-end activities including suppliers, distributors and the like, these activities have generated RM6bil worth of sales and have contributed RM890mil towards tax revenue for the country,” he explains.

With Kuala Lumpur as the headquarters, Hruska adds, Malaysia has been positioned as a major hub for L’Oréal’s South Asia Pacific, Middle East and North African region.

“We have built two centres of excellence – one on IT and the other on accounting and financial servicing – as well as a regional centre for digital and eCommerce activity, which provided additional job opportunities,” he says.

That was only just one pillar. Hruska says the other one that is also close to his heart is the people and planet.

Hair stylists have always been a large part of the group globally. After all, its very first product was hair dye and the group had begun working with hair salons from the start.

Here in Malaysia, the Fondation L’Oréal’s Beauty For A Better Life programme has a vocation to bring mostly women from underprivileged backgrounds to teach them not only hairdressing and beauty skills, but also to equip them with digital and life skills.

The programme was established in 2016 and has run successfully to this day.

A month ago, a Beauty for a Better Life Salon, in collaboration with Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia, opened its first outlet in KL – the first ever in Asia.

The salon provides free beauty and wellness treatments, and products for the vulnerable communities.

“With the Beauty for a Better Life vocational training, we upskill women so that they become entrepreneurs or find better employment.

“We’ve had an amazing success rate as 90% of the 249 women we’ve assisted found employment upon graduation. Now with the launch of the salon, we’re bringing the empowerment journey full circle as it is staffed by our graduates. We have plans to expand the salon nationwide and we aim to support 5,000 women beneficiaries in Malaysia by 2027,” he says.

Another successful programme in Malaysia since 2006 is the L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science.

“For almost 20 years, we’ve helped 57 women scientists with more than RM1.5mil of research grants. We believe that women representation in science is crucial because the world needs science, and science needs women,” he says.

The company’s ethos on diversity and inclusion is reflected in its organisation too.

In L’Oréal Malaysia, women comprise 72% of the workforce, with 62% of them in senior leadership positions and 50% serving on the country’s management committee.

Lastly, Hruska says being a beauty group, sustainability has always been at the forefront of their products and innovations.

“We are considered one of the most sustainable companies, and we attribute this to our 100% waste recycling, zero waste production from our office activities, reduced CO2 emissions, and our commitment to sending no waste to landfills,” he explains.

Furthermore, he says the group uses recycled plastic in their packaging and encourages consumers to play an active role.

“For instance, we celebrated World Recycling Day in June and ran a global-wide campaign to encourage consumers to embrace refills as the latest beauty ritual and contribute to a more sustainable future.

“Many of our products now offer refill options, empowering consumers to reduce waste and make more environmentally conscious choices in their daily beauty routines,” Hruska shares.

By being the first beauty company to join the Malaysian Recycling Alliance, L’Oréal Malaysia further advance its sustainability efforts.

“Marea is working very actively with the Malaysian government on waste collection and recycling, so we are very glad to be a part of it,” he notes.

Shaping the future of beauty

Meanwhile, on a global scale, it is no surprise that the beauty industry is growing larger each day.

According to the Socio-economic Impact Report, the global beauty industry was estimated to be worth about €290bil as of 2024.

Hruska says the market is here to grow, and he estimates that worldwide growth over the last two decades has been about 4.5%.

“Particularly here in South-East Asia, there is an increasing middle class that is accessing beauty products every day. Our role is to offer the best of our products to them while stimulating this growth through innovation,” he says.

Hruska strongly believes beauty and tech are inseparable.

“We’ve positioned ourselves as a beauty tech leader, and this can be seen in many of our products on the shelves. Many beauty advisors are able to give you recommendations using skin readers that leverage technology to identify the products you need for your skin type,” he says.

Another form of tech being used is virtual reality via applications that let consumers try out different hair colours and makeup to help them make the right choice.

On what helps them stand out among competitors, Hruska shares that the parent company has 4,000 scientists while each year, it registers between 600 and 700 patents – translating into almost 3,500 new formulations.

“Innovation sits at our core. We invest 3% of our net sales into research and innovation, and we’ve continuously expanded our portfolio to bring in more brands under our umbrella.

“We recently introduced 3CE, a K-beauty and fashion brand which has already seen some amazing success,” he says.

At its heart, L’Oréal Malaysia’s story has always been about more than beauty products – it’s about people, possibilities and progress.

From empowering women through education and skills training to driving sustainability and shaping innovation, the company has touched millions of lives over the past three decades.

For Hruska, that human connection is what truly defines success. “Beauty isn’t just about how you look – it’s about how you feel, how you express yourself and the confidence it gives you to create your own story,” he says.

As L’Oréal Malaysia looks ahead, its mission remains deeply personal: to continue inspiring every Malaysian to embrace their individuality, to dream bigger and to see beauty not just on the surface, but in the power to change lives.