Natura & Co. is #10 on our Top Global Beauty Companies 2023 Report

Natura & Co. is #10 on our Top 20 Global Beauty Companies 2023 report.    

Below is a look at the company's 2023 highlights, recent acquisitions, best-selling brands and latest innovations.

Natura & Co's Beauty Sales:

$7.1 billion

Key Personnel:

• Fábio Barbosa, CEO, Natura &Co.
• João Paulo Ferreira, CEO, Natura &Co, Latin America
• Angela Cretu, CEO, Avon International
• David Philip Boynton, CEO, The Body Shop
• Michael O’Keeffe, CEO, Aesop Guilherme Castella, CFO, Natura &Co
• Marcelo Behar, vice president, sustainability and group affairs

Major Products/Brands: 

• Aesop (now sold to L’Oréal)
• Avon
• Natura  
• The Body Shop

New Products:

• Natura—Luna Coragem and Essencial Único fragrances, Chronos Aqua Plumping Bio-Hydrating Serum, Ekos reformulation.


• Avon—Anew Sensitive+, Eve Privé and Far Away Splendoria fragrances, Ultra Color lip gloss. Aesop—Exalted Eye Serum, Eidesis fragrance. 


• The Body Shop—Vitamin C Glow, Sleep and Breathe Wellness & Self-Care, Jamaican Black Castor Oil

Comments on Sales

Despite operating in more than 100 countries, restructuring costs, higher operating expenses and Forex issues combined to take a $563 million bite out of Natura’s 2022 net profits, as sales fell 9.5%.

The Natura brand was a driving force in the company’s 2022 performance, while the year also saw improvement from Avon in the CFT category, which combined, were more than enough to offset the impacts of the planned Fashion & Home portfolio optimization strategy in Avon Latin America.

The company also installed a fully dedicated team to roll out the planned accelerated combination of the Avon and Natura businesses in Latin America in 2023 (starting with Peru and Colombia, and followed by Brazil), with the objective to unify the value proposition for Consultants and Representatives.

Unfavorable exchange rates played a key role in a sales decline in Natura &Co’s core Latin America division, which fell 1.7%; however, the Natura brand still turned in a solid performance.

Natura's Notable Launches

Natura’s investments in innovation were manifested in the launch of the new Chronos product lines and in the increase in the use of bio-actives in the Ekos line, which underscored the company’s relationship with the Amazon forest and its communities.

Using recycled plastic retrieved from the Brazilian coast in its packaging, Kaiak Oceano delivered a robust sales performance while addressing environmental issues. The largest part of the pack has 20% less plastic, and 50% of all the plastic used in it is recycled.

Avon Renews Focus on Beauty

Avon recorded an encouraging sequential topline improvement in the Beauty segment throughout the year.

The measures adopted to balance business activity and recruit new representatives resulted in improved KPIs, including productivity growth in the Beauty category, which also benefited from a better product and price mix, product innovation, and marketing strategies.

Avon’s overall net revenue in the key market of Brazil was still down 5.7% compared with 2021 due to a drop in Fashion and Home sales, as a result of a deliberate ongoing portfolio reduction in this category and a post-lockdown change in consumer habits.

See Also: Avon recently became Leaping-Bunny-approved & is highlighted in our feature, Growing Clean Beauty From the Ground Up

The Body Shop Faces Challenges

Natura &Co acknowledged that without exaggeration, 2022 was the most difficult year in the history of The Body Shop, where total net revenue was down 24.3%.

Key to its continued transformation, The Body Shop is ramping up the deployment of its new Changemaking Workshop stores, a “revitalized retail experience” rollout that was delayed by the lockdowns during the different waves of Covid-19. By the end of 2022, 10% of the brand’s footprint had been refitted, including owned and franchised stores.

Despite the uneven sales results throughout the year, Natura &Co reported that The Body Shop’s e-commerce channel saw ongoing improvements, reaching double pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

See Also: The Body Shop Expands Refill Program in Canada—saving more than 90,000 plastic bottles from the landfill

Natura & Co. Names New CEO 

Natura &Co announced a reorganization with Fábio Barbosa as CEO of the group. It is part of its effort to decentralize its business model. Barbosa has served on the Natura board since 2015. 

After posting a stellar 4.6% 2022 sales increase, in April 2023 Natura &Co announced the sale of its Aesop division to L’Oreal for the sum of $2.5 billion. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2023.

CEO Barbosa said the divestment of Aesop would enable Natura “to sharpen its focus on strategic priorities,” notably its investment plan in Latin America, as well as enabling greater concentration on the improvement of The Body Shop’s business and refocusing Avon International’s footprint.

Looking Ahead 

After a 2.8% dip in Q1, Q2 2023 results showed a 4.1% loss in comparison to Q2 2022.

In August, Natura mentioned in a securities filing that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its The Body Shop business, adding that it could potentially include a sale. The news comes after a pattern of declining sales and staff cuts.

See Next: Chanel is #11 on our list of Top Global Beauty Companies' 2023 report