A former Northrop Grumman plant that once produced airplanes has become cosmetics giant L’Oréal USA‘s second U.S. headquarters.
The company held a grand opening Tuesday, Aug. 23 for the 100,000-square-foot facility at 888 N. Douglas St. in El Segundo.
The facility is situated on a 25-acre “creative campus” developed by Los Angeles landlord Hackman Capital Partners with design work by the architectural firm Gensler. The campus will soon include a global headquarters for Beyond Meat, which is expected to open its 280,000-square-foot facility in September.
The L’Oréal USA building was developed by Hackman Capital along with the architecture and interior design from Studio Blitz. It houses a variety of office operations, ranging from development, marketing and sales, to creative planning and e-commerce.
Part of L’Oréal’s operations are housed in a revamped airplane hangar, where the trendy building already employs about 500 workers, officials said.
The company’s El Segundo headquarters began operation in June, bringing together teams from the company’s California-based brands that were previously housed in Los Angeles, Encino, Newport Beach and elsewhere in El Segundo. The teams represent L’Oréal’s NYX Professional Makeup, Urban Decay, Youth to the People, and Pulp Riot lines.
The company’s other headquarters is in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan, which opened in June 2016.
The El Segundo facility is also home to L’Oréal’s first West Coast-based Professional Products Academy. The school offers education in hair styling techniques, as well as skills and training related to certification classes.
The academy currently has 40 students who are taking everything from half-day sessions to classes spanning two or three days.
David Greenberg, L’Oréal USA’s president and CEO, said El Segundo was a logical choice for the new headquarters given its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport and the caliber of companies already doing business there.
“Every single L’Oréal brand now has a home here in California,” he said. “This is a startup culture of music, TV and film, and all of these are super linked to beauty.”
The new L’Oréal facility — with natural light coming from skylights in the building’s 45-foot ceilings — includes indoor and outdoor workspaces with expansive patio areas. It also has a wellness and exercise studio, a company store, networking and collaboration spaces, onsite dining and catering options operated by Wolfgang Puck.
The El Segundo headquarters was built to reflect L’Oréal USA’s new hybrid working schedule, allowing employees to work three days in the office and two from home. Like scores of other companies, L’Oréal shifted to a hybrid model because of workplace restrictions imposed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve found this is a fantastic way to give people flexibility to manage their lives while still keeping a connection to the company and its teams,” Greenberg said. “But it’s still important for us to have people together, so we’ve created an environment that’s really appealing to be in.”
Eric Chan, president of the El Segundo Economic Development Corp, said L’Oréal is a welcome addition.
“It shows continued support from corporations and organizations to invest in El Segundo,” he said.
Chan noted the city is already home to such major companies as Boeing Co., Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Mattel, Chevron and Beyond Meat, among others. And that roster is expanding.
The Los Angeles Chargers recently broke ground on a 14-acre corporate headquarters and training facility along Nash Street that’s slated for completion in July 2024.
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 U.S. cosmetics and beauty industry has held its own during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistica estimates the industry is currently generating $49 billion in revenue, down slightly from $49.2 billion in 2021, $49.5 billion in 2019 and $50 billion in 2018 before the health crisis took hold.
