Estee Lauder reveals China catching up fast with Japan

The China market is currently sustaining world-beating market growth for many of the international players that have recently increased there footprint there.

But in the luxury beauty products market, where Estee Lauder has positioned itself as a dominant player, market growth is currently beating all categories hands down, with average increases of 30 per cent.

However Estee Lauder managing director Carol Shen believes that the company can beat even this figure. In an interview with Reuters she told the news agency she believed the company's growth rate would hit between 35 - 40 per cent and this year.

What's more Shen is predicting that this market growth could be sustainable for between two and three years and that by 2010 continued growth should make it the second most important Asian market, only behind that of Japan.

In the financial year 2006 Estee Lauder's sales topped $869.7m, giving it a 13.5 per cent slice of the group's revenues.

Currently the China market for cosmetics is estimated to be worth in excess of $10bn - of which four per cent of this figure is said to represent the luxury beauty market.

Shen said in the interview that Estee Lauder has a 20 per cent share of the luxury segment in China, a market that has been developed through outlets in leading department stores in the countries major urban conurbations.