According to the British Beauty Council’s latest report, sales of beauty and personal care product and services sales reached £27.2bn last year, growing by a huge 11% on the previous year’s figure.
The organisation noted that this is now close to the pre-Covid average of £28bn.
The findings of British Beauty Council’s annual Value of Beauty compiled by Oxford Economics, revealed the UK’s personal care industry is ahead of publishing, chemical manufacturing, and the creative arts and entertainment industries in terms of generating revenue.
Employment growth in beauty sector
Employment across the beauty industry also saw growth in 2023, with a 10% increase in the total workforce – amounting to more than 603,000 people. The hair and beauty services sector supported a direct employment of 224,000 alone.
The British Beauty Council also highlighted that the labour taxes paid by this workforce, coupled with the indirect and induced contributions made by wider activity, are large enough to fund 86% of the annual total expenditure of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
Although growth is expected to slow next year along with price rises, Oxford Economics still predicts growth of 3% in 2025, which is higher than the 1% average for the economy.
Other notable findings from the report included:
- In 2023, the beauty and personal care industry made a direct contribution to UK GDP of £13.5bn. The industry’s activities supported an additional £13.6bn of UK GDP through its supply chain and employee spending, implying a total contribution of £27.2bn.
- Nearly half of the personal care industry’s total GDP contribution in 2023 (£13.5bn) was generated by the industry itself, representing 0.5% of the nation’s GDP.
- The industry’s workforce increased to 418,000 in 2023, a 10% increase on the previous year. As an employer, the beauty industry is more important than the real estate sector.
- Economic activity sustained by the beauty and personal care industry supported £7.3bn in tax revenues, of which £3.6bn was contributed directly by the sector and its workforce.
A return to its 2019 peak
CEO Millie Kendall OBE of the British Beauty Council, said the industry has almost returned to its 2019 peak economically, despite structural and economic challenges.
“This is credit to the ability of our industry to be dynamic and pivot – looking to China, USA, Australia, Middle East and India to help grow our exports in the face of increased red tape when trading with the EU.’
Kendall called on the government to ease access to the EU which, post-Brexit, is said to have put an almost £1bn drop in exports.
Kendall continued: ‘British Beauty has always been a hub of beauty creativity, cultivating some of the most global beauty talent to date. We also lead the way when it comes to sustainability, product safety and innovation. This has all resulted in this clear success, which is also reinforced by the power of beauty on UK high streets.’
But she said we still managed to grow compared to our EU neighbours.
"The adaptable and agile nature of the British beauty industry enabled us to surpass the biggest four members of the EU in growth across prestige beauty and skincare in the first half of 2024," she said.
"Couple this with our tremendous domestic growth and we have a lot to be optimistic about."
Domestic success, as well as exports
Beyond exports, Kendall also noted the relaunch of Sephora into the UK, and its upcoming expansion plans.
MD of Sephora UK Sarah Boyd said the LVMH-owned retailer has been extremely pleased with the performance of all three UK stores since they have launched, with all of them among the top-performing stores in the world.
"The performance of Manchester Trafford Centre has been particularly encouraging as we continue our expansion across cities in the UK, year-on-year growth of our first store, and our ecommerce business has also been extremely strong, and the customer response to our upcoming launches is brilliant to see," she said.
Download the full report here.
