Lombardy's leading cosmetics industry in Italy: 67% of the entire sector
According to the third Observatory of Assolombarda and Cosmetica Italia it will close 2024 with a turnover of 11.2 billion, an increase of 11.3%.
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Over €10 billion in turnover in 2023 - up 14.4% on 2022 and a clear increase on the almost €7 billion in 2020 - and the forecast to close this year at €11.2 billion with a further increase of 11.3%: Lombardy cosmetics is in continuous development and is confirmed as the driving force for the entire sector with a 67% incidence on total revenues at national level, according to the third edition of the Assolombarda and Cosmetica Italia Observatory.
Both the domestic and foreign markets play an important role, even though cross-border sales are becoming increasingly important: if, in fact, until 2021 domestic sales exceeded foreign sales, by 2022 exports are worth more than half of the sales in the Lombardy cosmetics sector and in 2023 they account for 53% of the total turnover, a figure that is set to rise to 55% this year.
Made in Italy cosmetics are particularly popular, not only among Italian consumers, but also on international markets. In 2023, Lombardy exported 5.3 billion euro worth of beauty products, three quarters of the 7 billion exported nationally. Foreign sales grew by 20.5% compared to 2022 and a further increase of 15.2% is expected in 2024 to reach 6.2 billion.
As regards the main destination markets for cosmetic exports, the data is available as of 2023 and only at national level: however, in light of Lombardy's share of Italian exports, the national ranking can be considered a good approximation of the regional figure.
In 2023, the top ten destination countries for cosmetics exports account for 63% of the total foreign turnover. With 962 million Euro in sales, or 13.7% of foreign turnover, the USA is the top destination followed by France with 704 million, Germany (700 million), Spain (424 million), the UK (372 million) and Poland (307 million). Other non-European countries also feature in the top 10, among them the United Arab Emirates (EUR 255 million) and Hong Kong (EUR 250 million). However, the country where foreign turnover has grown the most in relative terms is Russia, but there is also a large percentage increase in Germany and the United States (for both more than 30%). On the contrary, a slight decrease in turnover to the Netherlands was observed.
