L'Oreal confident in 2013 after sales rise L'OREAL, the world's top cosmetics company, says it is confident it will outperform the market this year after sales rose 5.1 per cent in the first quarter to 5.93 billion euros ($A7.55 billion). "L'Oreal has made a solid start to the year, with good organic growth, along with really significant market share gains," chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said in a statement on Thursday. The sales growth was 6.5 percent, excluding currency fluctuations and 5.5 percent on a like-for-like basis, pushing its market share in Western Europe and North American markets to new records, the company added. That, along with strong performance in emerging markets, "make us confident in our ability to outperform the market in 2013, and to achieve another year of growth in both sales and profits," said Agon. The French company saw sales rise by 10.4 percent to 22.46 billion euros last year, lifting net profits by 17.6 percent to 2.87 billion euros.