The name of Françoise Bettencourt Myers did not become famous overnight. Even before entering into inheritance rights, the woman managed to defend the family’s wealth by bringing a significant lawsuit against her mother.
How will the new heiress of the Bettencourt family influence the business of the great empire L’Oreal? It is too early to make predictions, while Françoise Bettencourt Myers keeps the brand, owning a fortune of 42.2 billion dollars and continuing to support the management policy of the concern.
In September 2017, a new star, Françoise Bettencourt Myers, “flashed” in the starry sky of the wealthiest people in the world. The success story of such an ascent is the luck of being born into the family of owners of the famous cosmetics empire L’Oreal. However, not everything is as painless as it looks on the surface.
Childhood of the heroine
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, French by nationality, was born on July 10, 1953, in the French city of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Our star is the only daughter of Andre and Liliane Bettencourt. The girl cherished her father, who was concerned about diplomacies and was very rarely at home.
The girl settled in the care of her mother, with whom they were completely various people. If Lillian often wanted to go out in new expensive outfits, then her daughter favored talking to books or spending hours studying the piano. She grew up an introverted intellectual.
Difficulties analyst Eric Treguier said of the family: “They hold around and do not combine with the rest of the French rich. Two decades ago, the family treated famous politicians, artists, and financiers of Europe. But Françoise grew up, Lillian’s husband died, and the circle of friends was significantly reduced.”
As a child, and in adulthood, Françoise was more and more often caught behind her back that she “lived as if in her cocoon”. Biographical data about the background of the heroine is very short – it is only known that she received a strict Catholic education. However, it became the grounds for further scientific activities of Françoise.
Charity
Our girl is one of the originators of the Bettencourt-Schueler Foundation. The organization is named after Lillian’s father, Eugene Schueler. Every year the company donates monetary awards to deserving young scientists.
The annual budget of this organization is 160 million francs – 55% of which goes to research and educational projects, 33% is allocated to the humanitarian and social spheres, and 12% goes to the areas of culture and art. For example, not so long ago, the foundation sponsored the formation of a new section at the Marmottan Monet Museum.
One of the Foundation’s many awards, the Life Science Prize, is for biomedical research scientists. Interestingly, all specialists under the age of 45 can apply for 250 million euros.
Not everything is so simple in a noble lineage
It is not the first time that fabulous wealth has become the cause of family conflicts. This trend has not saved the Bettencourt family either. According to one variant, a break in the relationship between mother and daughter was described when the latter became the wife of Jean-Pierre Myers in 1984.
The “piquancy” of the situation was that the chosen one of our heroines was the grandson of a rabbi who died in Auschwitz. She also brought up her two sons, Jean-Victor and Nicholas, in Judaism. And the grandfather of our heroine (and the founder of L’Oréal) Eugene Schueller in his youth provided broad support to anti-Semitic groups (so that he was accused of collaborating with the Nazis).
L’Oréal after the arrival of Françoise
At first, Liliana’s death kept the shareholders in suspense – it is not known what actions her heiress planned to take concerning the company. Ms. Bettencourt, who died in peace, was described as “an irreplaceable asset that determined a long-term development strategy.”
Even owning 33% of the shares, Liliana was able to strengthen both internal and foreign policy ties of the famous cosmetics concern. For the rest of the shareholders, her daughter was, albeit a major player, but a “dark horse” – unlike her mother, she was a rare guest at meetings.
However, fears did not materialize – since the beginning of 2018, all business units of Françoise Bettencourt Myers have shown growth. And I must say, the numbers show quite sharp (but positive) contrasts compared to last year’s reporting period.
For example, L’Oréal Luxe demonstrates very effective results, each of whose brands (Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, and Kiehl’s) showed more than 10% profit growth. La Roche-Posay and SkinCeuticals do not lag in similar double-digit indicators, Vichy and CeraVe show some potential. The gradual increase of L’Oréal Paris was not influenced even by the stagnation in the major Western European markets. The concern is strongly influenced in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular in China.
This year, the conglomerate acquired the Canadian company Modi Face to promote L’Oréal’s products in digital format. There are already the first positive results: an increase in online sales (by 33.8%) has been recorded – today they account for 8.8% of the total volume.
President Jean-Paul Agon is confident in the positive development of the business in the future. And Françoise Bettencourt Myers, one of the richest women in the world, should play an essential role in this. He is echoed by the heiress herself, repeating in a personal statement “confidence in her president L’Oreal and his teams around the world.”
