BRITISH BEAUTY INDUSTRY'S RESILIENCE REINFORCED BY MARKET GROWTH AND FORECASTED STABILITY

-  New report from the British Beauty Council cites an 11% growth for the beauty industry, valuing it at £27.2bn.

-  Due to increased employment, the British beauty industry's labour taxes are large enough to fund 86% of the annual total expenditure by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

-  The beauty industry's annual growth rate is forecasted to be higher than the national average in 2024, expected to peak at 3% YOY. 

LONDON, Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The British beauty industry grew by an impressive 11 per cent last year – with signs it is shaking off the triple hangovers of Brexit, Covid and the cost of living crisis, new reports show.

According to the British Beauty Council's latest Value of Beauty Report compiled by Oxford Economics, sales reached £27.2bn last year for both products and services close to the pre-covid average of £28bn.

Growth in employment also grew by 10 per cent supporting a workforce of more than 603,000 people.

Couple the labour taxes paid by the sector with taxes collected via indirect and induced channels, and its contribution is large enough to fund 86% of the annual total expenditure by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Overall growth this year was bolstered by inflation but even though it is expected to slow next year along with price rises, Oxford Economics still predicts growth of three percent in 2025 – far higher than the 1% average for the economy.

The growth puts the personal care industry ahead of publishing, chemical manufacturing, and the creative arts and entertainment industries.

Millie Kendall OBE, CEO of the British Beauty Council, hailed the findings as a tribute to the hard work, dynamism and versatile nature of the industry and its workers.

She called on the government to ease access to the EU which, post-Brexit, had put almost a £1bn (£850m) drop in exports.

"We have almost returned to our 2019 peak economically, despite structural and economic challenges," she said.

"We've had to be dynamic and pivot - looking to China, USA, Australia, Middle East and India to help grow our exports in the face of increased red tape when trading with the EU."

But she said we still managed to grow compared to our EU neighbours.

"The adaptable and agile nature of the British beauty industry enabled us to surpass the biggest four members of the EU in growth across prestige beauty and skincare in the first half of 2024," she said.

"Couple this with our tremendous domestic growth and we have a lot to be optimistic about."

"Beyond export, beauty's domestic influence is astounding, bolstered by the opening of Sephora in the UK."

Sarah Boyd, Managing Director of Sephora UK said: "We have been extremely pleased with the performance of all three of our U.K. stores since they have launched, with all of them among the top stores in the world.

"The performance of Manchester Trafford Centre has been particularly encouraging as we continue our expansion across cities in the U.K. Year on year growth of our first store, and our ecommerce business has also been extremely strong, and the customer response to our upcoming launches is brilliant to see."

You can download the full report here.