Cosmetics Design contacted several of Europe’s largest manufacturers, including L'Oréal, Beiersdorf, Unilever and P&G in an attempt to gauge the impact of the unrest in Ukraine on their operations.
Providing the clearest response, L'Oréal which markets a wide range of personal care products in Ukraine, said “we have not been directly affected by the dramatic events unfolding in the country to date.”
Corporate spokesperson Laura Lovasik told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that “The safety of our employees is our No. 1 priority.”
"We continue to work from our offices in Kiev. The situation is under control. We are in regular contact with the Embassy of France and monitor the evolution of the situation,” she told this publication.
Whilst L'Oréal has no plant in Ukraine, its’ subsidiary, which has operated there for eight years has four divisions on the ground and around 250 employees.
The cosmetic giant also has business in Russia but Lovasik says they “do not anticipate any change in our commercial relations with the L'Oréal Russia subsidiary” from their end either.
“Too early to report on unrest”
Beiersdorf declined to comment on the impact of potential sanctions on operations.
A spokesperson simply told this publication; “We are monitoring the developments attentively. It is too early to make any statements.”
Meanwhile, Unilever and P&G failed to respond to our request for comment on the situation.
An update a day - the current state of affairs in Ukraine
As part of heightened tensions over Ukraine, EU sanctions have been imposed on 33 Russian and Ukrainian officials, whereby their European and US assets have been frozen in an effort to put pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin.
On Monday Russian troops stormed a Ukrainian naval base on Crimea, a region in southern Ukraine with a large ethnic Russian population. The facility was one of few military bases still flying a Ukrainian flag after Russia's annexation.
Putin ordered the deployment of troops to the peninsula earlier this month following the fall of Ukraine’s former pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Kiev after weeks of bloody pro-European Union (EU) protests.
Meanwhile; Barack Obama arrived in the Netherlands later that day with a goal to increase pressure on Russia and gauge how far the EU is willing to go to stop Ukraine being further infiltrated.
However, European allies have closer economic ties to Russia than the US and their still-fragile economies could face a backlash if they get too tough.