Cosmetics giant L’Oréal USA announced Wednesday it will be opening a second company headquarters in El Segundo.
The facility, at 888 N. Douglas St., is scheduled to open in 2022 and will accommodate up to 500 workers. It will include more than 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor workspace on a 25-acre campus that once housed an aerospace manufacturing plant.
The move will bring together teams from the company’s California-based brands, which are currently based in three different locations. They represent L’Oreal’s NYX Professional Makeup, Urban Decay and Pulp Riot lines.
‘We know the area well’
“NYX Professional Makeup, is currently located in El Segundo so we know the area well,” a company spokesman said. “We were attracted to the inspiring vision behind the park-like campus and its location — close proximity to many business partners in the media, entertainment and technology sectors, and to an international airport.”
The El Segundo operation will complement the company’s main headquarters on the west side of Manhattan in the newly developed Hudson Yards neighborhood. That facility opened in June 2016.
Stéphane Rinderknech, L’Oreal USA’s president and CEO, said the company is well-positioned to invest in its expansion, and Southern California is the perfect place for that to happen.
“California has become a global stage for creativity, innovation, trends, diversity and talent in the beauty industry – and, as a result, it has become a driving force of our business,” Rinderknech said in a statement. “We are excited at the prospect of our brand teams coming together to build the future of beauty in the Los Angeles area.”
Indoor and outdoor workspaces
Developed by Los Angeles landlord Hackman Capital Partners with the architecture and interior design firm Studio Blitz, the new building will offer indoor and outdoor workspaces with expansive outdoor patios.
It will include a wellness and exercise studio, a company store with a wide array of products, and natural light coming from the building’s 45-foot ceilings.
Built to reflect L’Oréal USA’s new hybrid working model, the company’s El Segundo headquarters will allow employees to shift between in-office and remote work. In August, the company announced a permanent hybrid work approach that allows eligible employees to work 40% of their time (two days a week) from home each week.
An in-house academy
El Segundo will also be home to the first-ever West Coast L’Oreal Professional Products Academy. The school will offer education in hair styling techniques, as well as skills and training related to certification classes.
The academy’s aim, the company said, will be to “grow, inspire and develop salon partners and the beauty artists of tomorrow.”
A subsidiary of L’Oréal Group, L’Oréal USA employs more than 11,000 people with administrative, research, manufacturing and distribution facilities across 16 states. The company has manufacturing operations in Florence, Ky., North Little Rock, Ark., Piscataway, N.J., and Franklin, N.J.
Data from Statistica show the cosmetics and beauty industry weathered 2020 surprisingly well amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry posted $49.2 billion in U.S. sales last year, only slightly down from $49.5 billion in 2019 and $50 billion in 2018.
