L'Oréal pulls back from China market L'Oréal has decided it's just not worth it to sell its Garnier products in China. The French cosmetics and skincare group on Tuesday said it would halt sales of its Garnier beauty products in China in the face of growing competition from domestic and South Korean brands in the mass market segment of the mainland cosmetics market. IN Companies The move comes just a week after US rival Revlon, a much smaller player in the China beauty products market, said it would withdraw from the country altogether and cut 1,100 jobs. L'Oréal, one of the leading foreign cosmetics companies in China, said it would focus on its two leading brands in China - L'Oréal Paris and Maybelline New York. Garnier accounted for just 1 per cent of L'Oréal China's total sales of €1.5bn in 2012. L'Oréal is one of the strongest market players in China's beauty market. To strengthen our leading position, we have decided to discontinue the sales of Garnier products in China and focus our efforts on our two leading brands. We believe this will enable us to accelerate our conquest of the Chinese beauty market," a spokesman for the group said. China's $25.9bn cosmetics market is the third largest in the world and is expected to grow 63 per cent for the five years to 2015, according to consumer research firm Euromonitor. L'Oréal, which entered the Chinese mainland in 1997, commands a 17 per cent market share. But Shaun Rein, analyst at China Market Research in Shanghai, said consumers viewed Garnier as a "cheap L'Oréal" Garnier is not cheap enough and it's not luxury enough. Chinese consumers are no longer willing to pay a premium for a western brand unless it is demonstrably better," said Mr Rein. This demonstrates that it is not that easy to grow in China. Vera Wang of Euromonitor added that "Garnier was targeted at the mass skincare market in China ... and was not its flagship brand." L'Oréal said in its third-quarter earnings statement that the market in China was "slowing . . . but still dynamic" and market analysts say strong growth is still predicted in premium sectors of the market. Some foreign beauty brands have also struggled to compete against discounts offered by online retailers on higher-end cosmetic brands like Dior and Estée Lauder. Procter & Gamble said in May that it was losing market share in China in its skincare business, while Avon Products, which sells cosmetics directly to consumers, said in October that possible fines related to bribery probes in China and elsewhere might hurt its profits. Luxury cosmetic brands have not been hit as hard by the Chinese government's austerity programme. Goods like watches and high-end wines and liquors, are traditionally given as gifts to government officials, or consumed at government banquets which have been widely scaled down since the government of Xi Jinping enforced a ban on conspicuous consumption. Additional reporting by Zhang Yan