PARIS: French cosmetics and beauty products giant L'Oreal said Wednesday that its sales soared last year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, as luxury brands became its top sellers.

Sales rose by 15.3 percent from last year to 32.3 billion euros ($36.9 billion), marginally above the analyst consensus figures compiled by Bloomberg and Factset.

"It's the largest growth in 33 years," chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus told AFP.

L'Oreal 2019 profit trimmed by one-off items

While he noted 2021 was a bit of an exceptional year given the market was rebounding from the pandemic, L'Oreal's sales have grown 8 percent from 2019, outperforming the overall beauty market which is just returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Hieronimus expressed confidence that L'Oreal would be able to continue to outperform the overall beauty market in terms of growth.

He put growth at 4-5 percent for this year, L'Oreal's pre-pandemic growth rate.