According to Bain & Cie, the luxury or exclusive cosmetics market grew by over 10% in 2010. The cosmetics segments remained the most dynamic, but perfumes also saw perceptible growth. Final market recovery, boosted by industry-wide restocking, generated high demand for packaging.

This demand sprang largely from the great classics and from the few significant launches during the year, while new products linked to secondary names or brands were less in evidence.

This has led to a number of new products released at a rate of around 12 per month, focused on major projects which ultimately represent over 20% of annual sales revenue.

The order book continued to grow throughout the year, and in December exceeded €40m compared with €20m in December 2009.

Sales revenue for the financial year 2010 practically doubled, culminating at €52.8m (€36.1m in 2009).

After 2 rather tricky months at the start of the period, the division demonstrated remarkable responsiveness, accelerating throughout the financial year. The operating margin for the second half was 9.5% compared with 5% for the first half.

This was a consequence of the efforts made in previous years to improve operating conditions and to modernize and streamline automation at the three manufacturing sites of Aurillac (Cantal), Nogent-le-Phaye (Eure-et-Loir) and Saint-Saturnin-du-Limet (Mayenne) which ensured they could meet the challenge of rising sales revenues by +46.3% and manufacturing revenues by +50%.

Productivity was a key factor in this successful turnaround as staffing levels only increased by 17.1% (including temporary employment agency staff). Under overtime pressures, payroll was up 24.5%.

Negative operating income in 2009 (-€3.2m) was therefore completely offset in 2010 (+€3.9m).

The overall prospect remains very bright, with very high activity levels expected for 2011.

On February 8, 2011, the LISI Group announced that it had granted the POCHET Group exclusive negotiation rights for the disposal of LISI COSMETICS. This activity will therefore be accounted for as an asset held for sale, in accordance with financial standard IFRS5, as of January 1, 2011.