After working for Paris-based L’Oréal Groupe in just about every other corner of the world, An Verhulst-Santos was eager to come to Canada.
That’s because L’Oréal Canada, she says, is the market leader nationally, one of the global brand’s top ten national subsidiaries, and home to many innovations.
“Many of the transformation projects that the Groupe puts in place, very often, they come first to Canada,” says Verhulst-Santos, who became the first female president and CEO of L’Oréal Canada in 2021. “Why? Because the Canadian teams have this hard-working attitude and an eagerness to contribute something positive in an agile and creative way.”
The Belgium-native was always drawn to the fashion and beauty sector, but was convinced by her father to first earn a bachelor’s degree in business before pursuing a master’s from the French Fashion Institute.
Soon after graduating Verhulst-Santos landed a job with L’Oréal in her home country in 1991 and has worked for the 116-year-old brand ever since.
Over the next 30 years she would take over marketing operations for all of Europe from Paris, then served as GM of the company’s professional products division in the Netherlands, then Brazil, then the U.S., then Paris again, before being named president and CEO of L’Oréal Brazil.
“After almost five years in Brazil I really wanted to come back to North America, and specifically Canada, because I wanted to discover a little bit more about this country, which I had seen a little bit of when I was in my global role,” she says. “I was always very impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit of the of the Canadian teams.”
Established in 1958, L’Oréal Canada now has 1,700 employees spread across its Montreal-based headquarters, manufacturing facility and warehouse, as well as its satellite offices in Toronto and Vancouver.
L’Oréal Canada’s portfolio includes 39 beauty brands from Garnier, Biotherm and Maybelline New York to Lancôme, Kiehl’s and Giorgio Armani Beauty. The company also owns salon supplier SalonCentric Canada.
Some of the global Groupe’s recent innovations — like its AI-powered beauty assistant tool, BeautyGenius and virtual makeup try-on tool — are the result of the 2018 acquisition of Toronto-based ModiFace.
The Star recently spoke with Verhulst-Santos from L’Oréal Canada headquarters in Montreal about the often-underappreciated value of beauty, the loss of a longstanding retail partner in Hudson’s Bay, and why the sector has proven surprisingly resilient in times of economic uncertainty.
What inspired you to pursue a career in beauty?
Sometimes people look at beauty as a little bit superficial, but we at L’Oréal believe it’s essential; there’s not one civilization that has survived without beauty, and it has to do with self-esteem, and having the strength to step out into the world.
I wanted to study fashion, but my dad saw that I had good grades in mathematics and hard sciences, and said “why don’t you pursue something in a more serious field, and then you can do something in fashion afterwards?”
That’s exactly what happened. I did a business degree, which was a combination of engineering and commercial studies, and then I went to Paris to do a master’s degree in fashion, where I had my first contact with L’Oréal.
What kept you at L’Oréal for the next 34 years?
I love embracing challenges, I love getting out of my comfort zone, and at L’Oréal I’ve found these amazing opportunities to take on new challenges around the world.
My first international move was leaving Belgium to become the head of marketing in Europe, where I was travelling four days a week everywhere from Finland to Israel, seeing different cultures — which was mind-blowing for me, coming from a small country.
Then I was appointed general manager of the professional division in the Netherlands, and I learned so much about sales and commercialization from the Dutch; they really are the best traders in the world.
Then I asked to move to Brazil, because it has the most complex hair care market in the world, and I could not imagine working in the professional division — which takes care of every variety of hair — and not work in the most demanding hair care market.
Then I was appointed to the United States, which is the biggest beauty market in the world, where I was in charge of creating a network of distributors through a series of acquisitions. Then I left the U.S. to take over the professional product decisions worldwide in Paris, which was a huge step.
In the meantime, I had married an amazing Brazilian man, and we had two small children, so after six years of travelling around Europe I wanted to come back to Brazil. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to be the president and CEO of L’Oréal Brazil.
What made you want to come to Canada?
L’Oréal Canada is a top-10 country for the Groupe, and one of the reasons I wanted to come is because L’Oréal is the number one leader in the country — three times larger than our closest competitor. In Brazil we were always a challenger, so I thought it would be interesting to manage a team that was already leading in the country with a challenger spirit.
What were some of your goals coming into the role?
The question is, if you’re already a leader, where do you find room to grow? The L’Oréal Groupe is built on four divisions, and I had taken a similar approach in Brazil, to come up with “One L’Oréal Spirit,” where the four divisions become greater than the sum of their parts, and that’s what I worked on with our management team.
We are very committed to creating value for the Canadian market, because we are a Canadian company. That means we want to create economic value, so for every person we have in our organization we create 11 jobs for our suppliers and retailers. That means that we have 1,700 employees but represent more than 20,000 jobs in Canada.
The second is our social impact, specifically for the 170,000 Canadians we reach through 65 different partnerships and our foundation, because all of our brands have a social cause attached to them.
L’Oréal is also the only company in the world to have achieved a triple A rating from the CDP for nine years in a row, which tracks how well companies protect forests, ensure sustainable water management, and help fight climate change. Here in Canada, we became the first beauty company to sign the Net-Zero Challenge with the Canadian government.
We also have 72 different nationalities at the company. We are making sure that our talent is representative of our consumers, so we are committed to diverse thinking and ensuring all 72 nationalities feel heard and respected and integrated into the company.
What does innovation look like in this industry?
L’Oréal was founded by a chemist named Eugène Schueller, so research and innovation is part of our DNA.
We have more than 4,000 scientists in 21 research centres around the globe; we invest about $20 billion in research and file about 700 patents every year. Our view on beauty is through the lens of science — from the founder in 1909, until now.
If we want to delight the consumers we need to come up with new formulas, new technologies, new approaches.
For example, there’s a very strong quest now in longevity research, and we’re very engaged in that.
And with the 2018 acquisition of ModiFace we are making breakthroughs in AI technology, which is all happening in Canada.
Now, when you shop online, we have virtual try-ons where you can check a lipstick or view a hair colour or check a foundation colour for your skin.
Last year our CEO did a huge speech at CES Las Vegas where we launched BeautyGenius for L’Oréal Paris. This feature is like a personal beauty assistant for you when you shop. That was also developed by ModiFace, so Canada is helping the Groupe create new beauty experiences for the world.
As a major retail partner would the collapse of Hudson’s Bay represent a significant challenge?
It’s very sad to see a Canadian landmark like this facing difficulty.
Our consumers may have been going to these stores and seeing the same beauty advisors whom they’ve gotten to know over years.
We have a lot of gratitude for HBC, they were a very good partner to us always, but the beauty market for Canada is bright.
We have other retail partners, and as a leader in this market, our job is to reach consumers in the best way possible, and our customers have other partners they can go to, or shop online.
Do recent economic headwinds pose a challenge to the industry?
The beauty industry is very resilient industry because of something called “the lipstick effect.”
It started with the Great Depression of the 1930s where we saw cosmetic sales increase from 1929 to 1933 despite a huge industrial downturn, and we saw it again after the World Wars, after the Great Recession of 2008, after COVID.
The logic is that in an economic crisis consumers postpone buying luxury goods, like a new car or a vacation, but they still want to treat themselves with something that feels luxurious; so, they buy cosmetics.
It’s not the lipstick itself, but the concept of beauty; you put on this lipstick, and you immediately feel like you can take on the world.
Taking care of yourself gives you confidence, and in an economic downturn people look for those small pleasures and ways to feel good about themselves that cost less than other luxuries.
