End of an era for L'Oreal as British boss steps down

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — L'Oreal's chief executive Lindsay Owen-Jones was due to step down at the end of an 18-year reign at the French cosmetics giant that was marked by uninterrupted growth.

L'Oreal, one of the major symbols of France's style and chic, will once more have a Frenchman in charge in the shape of Jean-Paul Agon, who faces a hard act to follow but has already shown he intends to do things a little differently.

Owen-Jones will stay on as a board member of the firm after handing over a group that has gone through fundamental changes to emerge at the head of the world's cosmetics industry.

For 21 years the company has reported steady growth in its profitability, crowned last year by a net profit of just under two billion euros (some 3.6 billion dollars), up...