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Multinational corporations including French beauty giant L’Oréal and Canadian sportswear brand Lululemon have pledged continued investment in China at the world’s largest trade fair in Shanghai, signalling confidence in the world’s second-largest economy amid signs of a consumer recovery. Speaking on the sidelines of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), L’Oréal chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus said “investing in China is investing in the future”, citing the country’s recovering luxury market and rising consumer confidence. “The [Chinese] market has been recovering and accelerating quarter after quarter, and it turned positive, particularly in the luxury segment,” he said. “When I come here it is to talk about the future and discuss 2026, and clearly we are ambitious about the market. Consumer confidence is increasing … the Shanghai stock market has gone up, which is good for consumer confidence.” The Shanghai Composite Index has risen about 21 per cent in the past six months. L’Oréal dominated China’s luxury beauty segment, commanding nearly 30 per cent of the market, according to Hieronimus. China is the company’s second-largest market globally. The French cosmetics maker reported its first positive growth in North Asia in two years, with mainland China sales rising by single digits in the third quarter. It is targeting 5 per cent sales growth in China for 2025. “Chinese consumers have become more expert, more demanding for high-quality, sustainable products,” Hieronimus added. The upbeat tone comes as China’s consumption recovery gathers pace. Retail sales of consumer goods grew 4.5 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2025 to 36.58 trillion yuan (US$5.13 trillion), according to official data. China’s luxury sector had shown steady quarter-on-quarter recovery over the past year, reversing the sharp downturn seen through 2023 and early 2024, said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at DLG, in a recent podcast. Lululemon echoed L’Oréal’s optimism about China’s potential. “The Chinese mainland has become our second-largest market globally, a key growth engine for our business,” said Calvin McDonald, Lululemon’s CEO, in a video message at the opening of its CIIE pavilion. The Canadian athletic apparel brand operated more than 165 stores across China and planned to “continue expanding year after year”, he said. Its latest milestone was the opening of a store support centre in Shanghai’s West Bund – an emerging central business district – on October 27. The five-storey, stand-alone building spans 96,875 sq ft and houses 500 employees. Ng San Yan, managing director of Lululemon China, said the company had been operating in the country for 12 years. “We will continue to grow in China, invest in China,” she said. The executives’ pledges came as Chinese Premier Li Qiang reaffirmed in his CIIE keynote speech that China would “steadfastly advance high-level opening-up to the outside world” and continue to embrace “free markets and free trade”. Beijing has identified boosting domestic consumption among its 1.4 billion people and achieving technological self-reliance as key pillars of its development blueprint for the next five years, as set out in the 15th five-year plan released in late October. At a separate forum on November 5, Zhejiang enterprises and foreign firms signed 14.5 billion yuan worth of deals, including cooperation agreements with Siemens Healthineers, Schneider Electric and Roche Diagnostics Shanghai. The six-day expo, which will conclude on Monday, drew 4,108 overseas exhibitors from 155 countries and regions across more than 4.6 million sq ft of exhibition space – the largest in its eight-year history, according to official data.
