We have obviously, CEO of Estée Lauder, Fabrizio Freda, with us today. Fabrizio, thank you so much for coming up. It's great to have you back at the conference. It's been a few years. You're coming off a year, a fiscal year, that didn't go exactly as planned. So first, I'd just like to get your take as you look back on kind of what could have been done differently, and maybe from here, what are the plans to drive stronger sales growth, recover margins, and attract lifetime algorithm? So basically, everything.
Yes.
Everything.
One question.
Everything.
Okay. What happened in 2023, you know, fiscal year 2023, you know by now very well, but is that we, the volatility of the COVID in, in the East, in China and Korea, and the COVID crisis has been extraordinary. We, with our retailers in, China and Korea, particularly in Travel Retail, we have been betting on a fast recovery of China, after the COVID was under control. This fast recovery didn't happen, and actually, the recovery was continued to be super volatile. The ups and downs have been extreme, and there are many reasons that maybe, if you want, I can summarize where this recovery has been much lower.
Now, having prepared for this recovery meant on a long supply chain, meant to build inventories for being able to serve the business in case the recovery was strong. Meant preparing this inventory and use our factory capabilities very, very well. But when the recovery didn't happen, we had two issues that impacted us pretty brutally. The first is the inventories in the Travel Retail retailers, that we are still moving down as we go, as you know, from what we spoke in the last quarter. And second, inventory in our warehouses. And importantly, the fact that now, for example, we need to produce much less than normal, in our manufacturing because we have the inventory to ship at this stage.
This had a big impact on gross margin, and so the combination of lower net sales. I remind you that our retail sales in the difficult fiscal year 2023, globally, were +5%-6%, so they were strong, but the net sales was the big, the big issue. So, in that situation, we are left with a pretty lower gross margin than usual. Also, we built some extraordinary important capabilities for the long term, which I'm going to summarize in a moment, during the fiscal year 2023, but they were built expecting, stronger overall net sales in the company. So, today they are too high versus the sales in the short term. So our percentage of business, you know, has also increased.
So you have a lower net sales, and you have a gross margin and the overall impact in the short term. That's a summary of the big impact into fiscal year 2023. Now, I want also to underline, this issue had been overwhelmingly important, and so obviously took a lot of our attention, your attention, the market attention. But I want to summarize that in fiscal year 2023, we have done many, many important things for the long term. My thesis is that our fundamentals for the long term are intact. 2023, our strong brands, for example, Estée Lauder, La Mer, if you exclude the Travel Retail, have been growing super strong, double digits. Our skincare business has been under pressure. If you exclude Travel Retail in Asia and, as in Korea and China, it's been growing +19%.
By the way, our total business in the last quarter, as I communicated several times, is growing plus 17%, excluding the Travel Retail China and Korea. So a very solid performance everywhere else, with the exception of North America, that we are going to talk in a second. But we have been growing market share in Mainland China very well. But if you compare our market share versus last year, it being up last quarter two full points, we almost completely recovered the market share that we lost in the very difficult moment of the closure of Shanghai. By the way, this moment was the beginning of the problem of volatility for us, but then the average of the market, because we were concentrated in Shanghai. And we have recovered all the market share.
But so if I compare the market share, not versus last year, but versus two years ago, it's still growing market share and very strongly. So we are growing also versus two years ago and versus 2019. So we are winning market share in China. Not many companies are winning market share in China. And also when... I know that maybe we'll speak later about the local competitors. There are one or two local competitors, which, by the way, not in luxury, which are doing pretty well, but there is not, not many, not different. The question is, will they be there in the future? My opinion, yes, we can talk this later, but this, this fiscal, we've done tremendously well in China. Second, we have been growing market share in Europe.
Sometimes I get the question, can you grow market share also in situation where there are strong local competitors? We are growing market share in France, so the local competitors.... We, so we can. We are growing market share in Italy, we are growing market share in Spain and Germany. So it's been a very good momentum in India. We're growing market share in our emerging markets. Our India business has been growing 50%, 50%, and so our total emerging market last quarter, ex China, has been growing 38%. APAC, meaning Asia in total, including China, has been growing 36%. By the way, if you do the comparison also two years before, 2021, it's also has been growing a strong double digits. So all this is very. I can speak about U.K., Latin America, we're growing very well.
What I'm trying to say is that our fundamentals are really in the right direction. Our innovation has been very strong in the year. We had, we're almost innovation at 25% of total, even in the fiscal 2023, despite the pressure in Travel Retail Asia. If you look at our innovation is now well spread across our categories. In skincare, we are aware we need to do more in one area, which we have invested a lot in 2023, which is all these active scientific derma, performance-oriented skincare boom that the consumers are driving around the world. Now, this obviously is happening also in mass or in prestige or in pharma, but, frankly, can be attacked also from the luxury point of view.
We are prepared in fiscal year 2023 to do a lot of this. We have increased by 85% the amount of scientists, dermatologists, that work on our brands, with our brands, that we started engaging, or in the case of some brands, like Clinique, re-engaging in a very big way. So we are ready. Sometimes I get the question, which is the part of your portfolio that can better go in that direction? First of all, during this period, we have increased the clinical test capabilities enormously. We are running many more clinical tests now, also in China, on Asian skins, because of the new R&D center in Shanghai. We, as I said, increased the amount of scientific support. We've increased the ability to deliver claims, thanks to the clinical studies, et cetera.
Importantly, the repeat purchase, the loyalty to our formulation, so the pure appreciation of the consumer, the product they try, is still among the other, the biggest in the world, has been increasing over the last years. So we have all the fundamentals to win in high-performance skincare. We need to adjust in the communication to the consumers to make sure that we better connect with the expectation of the consumers in what we communicate to them. We are in the process of doing it. The brands, Clinique is the obvious derma brand since ever. You will see in the second semester already you see signs. If you follow Clinique, you see signs of going in that direction.
For example, in this moment, we have our leading ophthalmologist, which is supporting the mascara, the under eye products from Clinique in the, on Instagram, and you can follow on TikTok, and the success is extraordinary. So the consumer is responding to that part of the communication. As I said, all the rest, product performance, innovation, clinical studies, we are ready. We are ready this year. We're getting better every day. The communication is the piece we need to step change, so not too complicated, but has to be done. In the second semester of this fiscal year, you will see, for example, an important relaunch of Clinique in that area. Brand more street in this, in opportunity area with the consumer globally. Then The Ordinary is absolutely there. It's the most scientific-oriented, ingredient-oriented, in an affordable, It's quality at affordable price concept. It's doing extraordinarily well.
I don't know if you follow The Ordinary. It is the leading brand in volume, in number of pieces sold already in skincare in the United States. It's very, very, very successful in every place where we launch it. Particularly, The Ordinary is adding to our portfolio, the right brand to win in emerging markets. Interesting, our brand to win in China has been Estée Lauder, has been La Mer, has been the luxury part, and continue to be. Our brand to win in emerging market, historically, has been MAC, because emerging market we are entering with the entry price of makeup. The Ordinary is now the, together with Clinique, the real right brand to enter the emerging market. Results in India of The Ordinary has been very, very strong.
The Ordinary in India has been launched with becoming number one in few weeks of the retailers in which they were sold. So very strong success in our portfolio. The other brand is Dr.Jart+. This brand is a young brand, Korean derma brand, that has been badly affected by the Travel Retail crisis, because it was a brand that in Asia had a lot in Travel Retail, but is doing super well in places like U.K., North America, U.S., in exclusive to Sephora in the U.S., is a very strong growing brand. So this brand is smaller in the longer term, but will have a big input in this derma place. And then we are relaunching our Origins brands in this active natural space, which is going to be created.
So we are, we have invested during fiscal year 2023 in what will be an acceleration of skincare beyond solving the issue in Travel Retail Asia. Obviously, the biggest benefit of skincare that we need to get is getting our mix right again between China Travel Retail and the rest of the portfolio, because this will, as you know, China Travel Retail is a lot about skincare in proportion, so this will bring skincare back. Then, we have done one important acquisition, TOM FORD. I want to remind you, [TOM FORD] is very strategic. TOM FORD is operating into the high end of, couture business, where we have a space to do much better. And, almost a really competing with the CHANEL, with the Dior, with the Armani, with the Yves Saint Laurent of this world.
TOM FORD is our brand best position, it's doing great, but always been, last quarter has been growing outstanding, and it continue to go very well in fragrances and in makeup in Asia, where this is a very important area for makeup acceleration. We have also, The Ordinary that was mentioned before, has reached $500 million more sales. We have $500 million. The definition of now is a mid-size brand, and so from there, as the scale to accelerate in a very big way, by the way, it's much bigger than $500 million. We don't communicate numbers by brand, but it's now becoming. Will be our next $1 billion brand. I communicate also there were four $1 billion brands.
We become six this year because TOM FORD and Jo Malone will join this category, and I also say that in a few years, The Ordinary will join these categories. So we are going to have seven one billion plus brands. That is a big improvement of our fundamentals. Historically, we are two, and now we are prepared to have a very big scalable portfolio. The other important thing is, has been the Profit R ecovery Plan that we have put together at this point. I want you to be obviously totally convinced to hear me say we are determined to bring our profitability back in the best possible way. We have created a plan, which is called the Profit Recovery Plan, where the entire organization has been focused.
When I travel, and now business has already been already two times in China in the last four months, for more than 10 days each, there is a full discussion on the various profit drivers. As I said, there are two things that we need to recover fast. One is the gross margin, and the other one is the overheads as percentage of total in general. And the third important one is the mix of our, of our sales, the impact also, the taxation. So those are the three area of focus. On the mix is a matter, as I just anticipated, to push the Asia, TR Asia back to the and to get skincare going. The rest of the portfolio is going in the right direction.
Makeup is recovering everywhere in the world where COVID has been, basically, the volatility of COVID has gone down. Fragrances become a very good and profitable business for us. I changed the strategy of fragrances several years ago to go more in the high-end luxury fragrances, much more profitable. And for example, we closed our ADF business, designer business, just last year for the same reason. We wanted to make fragrances more of an investment-grade category for us for the long term. I think we did it. The last two years, the fragrance profitability is getting better and better, and now we have the opportunity to go for it full scale. So that will improve also. Once skincare will be fixed, fragrance will be a net extra versus our history.
Even if makeup had to be slightly less than what was historically in total, we will have the same potential and the same power, because of the fragrance that changed, that we never had in the past. So the mix is also about pricing, is about less discounting. A lot of the business in TR, particularly the ADF business, was associated with more discounting. The average, this will be normalized, and then the creation of value out of pricing into the mix, and then the tax positive impact over the better mix. Then gross margin, there are two issues. One is obsolete and excess. Obsolete and excess, we have dramatically improved our forecasting. By the way, AI, artificial intelligence, is supporting our forecasting capability in a very positive way already, more to be discovered.
And so we are in full forecasting, and we made some decision to stop producing and not pushing the production and inventories, but wait, that demand and retail and net will align better and then restart production. So lower excess is a big, big improvement of profitability. Then better capacity utilization as soon as we will go back for using normally, and maybe with some right sizing between categories that we still need to finalize. This will be another important improvement in profitability. And then all the cost structure that we are readjusting to the re-reality of this transition and this go back to growth. So there is a profit plan, and you will hear more quarter by quarter, how this will be put in place. And we are determined to recover our profitability in the best possible way.
As Tracy said during the last quarter, call, we believe that the long-term profitability, power, or EPS power of the company is intact. It's just that we need to go this transition and rebuild it, and to get there. We need the patience to do this, because as I'm explaining, there is no magic bullet or silver bullet. It's a process that we need to do. And as we communicated, these first six months of this fiscal year are still, affected by the negatives, but not fully affected by the positives. In the second semester of this fiscal year, we should have more of the engines going in the right direction, as our guidance describes pretty, pretty clearly. So that's the situation. Next, my thesis is that the fundamentals are intact.
Sorry, I forgot to say that our brands are really doing well and growing market share, also brand by brand, I didn't mention, but all the most important brands has had the right innovation in every aspect. So our fundamentals are intact. Our strategy, the majority of our strategy is still the right one. I mean, if you ask me, do you continue to see online Travel Retail to be the great channels, more profitable, they continue to drive this industry? I think so. Absolutely, this has not changed. And, are there new things that are happening that we can talk maybe later? There are, but we are on top of them, and we are, as usual, adjusting our strategy needed. So fundamental are intact, long term is very promising. We need to get this turnaround or this, acceleration, this recovery, executed with excellence.
And the team is really there with it, completely focused on it. And, I have an extraordinary team, that even in a very difficult year, is coming up with the right passion, with the right solution, and with the right dedication. So I have, great trust in the long term.
Let me talk for a moment about Travel Retail specifically. So as we kind of get through the disruptions and the volatility in the channel right now, how do you think this part of the business emerges? You know, kind of what are the long-term opportunities there, and within that, I'd love you to touch on how you think about the future of Daigou in the channel. It's not just a question of China and the adjustments there, but also Korea historically being a predominantly Daigou market or channel level. So I'd love some perspective on how you think about the evolution of Travel Retail once we're through this, you know, kind of stabilization.
I think, as I briefly anticipated, I believe Travel Retail will remain one of the most important channels. To be clear, Travel Retail was among the top markets of luxury beauty already in 2019, 2018. So it's not only the result of the distortion of regulation and activities in defense of COVID that happened in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The three years of COVID has created this Daigou distortion, but the Travel Retail has been one of the best markets for beauty for a long time, even when Daigou were a much smaller business, was more about individuals buying few products more in the airports. So I believe TR will continue to be extraordinary. First of all, it is the right place for consumer to try new products.
A lot of trial happen in Travel Retail, so you can also think of Travel Retail not only as a profitable channel, but as a trial channel, very efficient cost. And so Travel Retail will continue to be there. Will continue to be an equity builder in airports, in Hainan, in the beautiful places of the world where there is a correct exposition, there is service in store, there are beautiful, beautiful counters and all the rest. So we continue to be a equity building channel in the long term. Then it's driven by traffic and by duty-free elements, and this will continue to happen. There continue to be duty-free opportunity. There continue to be traffic. Traffic is coming back. As you know, the traffic today is still below 2018 because the entire Asia traffic is still missing in part.
It was not missing only the consumer don't want to travel, is missing where there are no planes, no pilots. So there is the infrastructure which is getting gradually rebuilt, will be rebuilt, and traffic will go back to 2019 and beyond levels over the long term, and this will feed the regular travel, Travel Retail. So my view of the future is that all this positive will continue, and that the regular travel rebuilt, in absence of COVID, will substitute the Daigou business that was extreme during COVID. And the balance between the two will be a long-term, efficient, effective, and growing Travel Retail business.
The fact there will be much less Daigou and much more regular traveler would be very positive also for the impact of Travel Retail on the other channels in the various markets of the world. So I see a positive outcome. Hainan will remain one of the most important Travel Retail, if not the most important Travel Retail location in the world. If you were there, I've been there recently, again, it's just an extraordinary place. There are so many travelers. Remember that Hainan serves the Chinese that don't have a passport, which are 85% of the population. So even when international travel will restart, Hainan will have extraordinary traffic, will have a lot of people. It is a beautiful vacation place.
There are great beaches, there are great theater exposition, but shopping is part of the entertainment, so it's almost part of the vacation. So, Hainan is there to stay, and also Hainan will be more and more regular travel and less Daigous, but will be a good business. And then in 2025, the entire island will become duty-free and will offer retailers and companies like us opportunities also to have, for example, freestanding stores that go directly to the consumers in a duty-free way. So there will be more opportunities that will be open. And finally, the Chinese government had made an important bet on Hainan, and I believe they will continue to support it and lead it over the years in a constructive way. So, Travel Retail in total is going to be exciting.
Now, the proof of that, now as we speak, I was just in the U.K. last week. U.K. is also the base of our EMEA Travel Retail business, is flying. Travel retail in Europe, in the Middle East, is, in Turkey, is doing really, really well in this moment. So whenever regular traffic is back. And we are investing in people in store. By the way, taking time, because it's difficult to find again, all the people for this new increased traffic. But all these gradual improvements is frankly ahead of our expectations. Now, the issue is that Travel Retail in the rest of the world is smaller than Travel Retail in Asia. So we are waiting for Travel Retail in Asia to go in the same trend.
You have the proof in EMEA, you have the proof in Latin America, you have the proof in Americas at this moment. Travel Retail is coming back, where traffic is coming back.
Okay, great. I know you've discussed the health of your brand equities, and in particular market share gains, within China, but Mainland China. But one question we regularly get is whether or not the consumer in China in particular has been trained to buy Lauder brands on discount. You know, and that's going to be the case even more so over the next couple of months as we work through the inventory and channel and kind of get back to baseline. So I know it's a tough thing to gauge, but how do you think about that? I know in the past two conference calls, lower promotionality has actually been mentioned as a goal, and I was curious if that was specific to Asia or it was also a global comment?
This was a global comment, but I'm going to come to that, but that's also important for Asia. And so, it's true that there being more promotionality during COVID, frankly, not only in China. If you look at COVID like a moment where governments are faced, industry with retailers, people, etcetera, were risking to go bankrupt. Different governments have reacted in different ways. Governments in the U.S. have given to people money to pass through the very difficult moment of COVID. Europe, there were a mix of support, money and preserving their jobs and, et cetera, things like that. In Asia, they got the support of unique regulations that will allow them to stay in business during this very difficult moment.
So the discounts are also the results of policies to protect this business, giving them the authorization to sell more into Daigou, in the case of Korea, or give them the authorization to sell more online in general, in the market, to make them survive despite the airport is closed. So there's been a lot of disruption dictated by... frankly, not by the companies, but dictated by the governments and retailers ways to pass through the COVID period. When this will go away, and it's already going away, as you want, the part of the issue we're living through now is that this transition back to normal is painful.
Yeah.
Because it's a transition back to normal, where the new normal, meaning regular travel, good economy, is not yet back. The transitional regulation is trying to change the past. We are sitting in the middle of this with high inventories. So that's the real simplified picture of what's happening. But it's a transition. The transition back to normal will include less promotionality, and is happening, is already happening. By the way, is happening for company-wide, intentionally. The fact that the Daigou regulation is now more imposed and pushed wide, as everyone speaks about, is decreasing the Hainan results in the short term, and in turn, is taking maybe a few more months of inventory needed to get inventory down, depending how long this will last.
But that transition is also because the pricing of sales are more normal, and so there, there is more graduality. Some consumers, particularly Daigou kind of consumer, need to get accustomed to that, but they will. So there is a transition, but at the end of this transition, I think things will be better. There will be less promotionality, oriented business. Now, was the consumer now accustomed to buy Estée Lauder only in promotion, every brand in promotion? Now, every brand is being promoted in this way. You can argue 50% discount on 55%, 45% or 50%, but everything was promoted for the reason I just explained.
So yes, the consumer has been able to access Estée Lauder with more discounting, but when you look at where there was some Travel Retail in use discount, but where in China, 11.11, 6.18, all these peaks of sales online, which have been historically more discounted than others. And those are also outstanding opportunities to recruit more consumers. They are very appealing in tier three, tier four cities. So I believe the ups and downs of promotionality to attract new consumer in such a broad market, where 300 million people will enter the middle class in the next years, will remain, but will be dictated by, by choices of promotional activity in order to recruit new consumer, instead of retailer competition, which is more disruptive.
I think this transition from promotionality as a non-managed competition between retailers to promotionality as intentional recruitment strategies, that transition will be very positive for the long term of China. And frankly, this happened in every other market of the world, a different level, different level of intensity. So, already beyond your question, there is also the question, but are the Lauder brands, the Lauder companies in that, in equity? And I think the answer is yes, and the way I can prove and support this thesis is, please look at the market share we're building in China, at the volumes that we're building in China. Compare the sales we do in China mainland, not TR, just mainland. So sold in department stores, online, Tmall, et cetera, et cetera.
2019 had what we have done in now, despite the competition with TR, the competition with Korea, et cetera, et cetera, the our net sales have almost doubled. Our market share is increased dramatically. You can compare the market share versus Shanghai closure, we are growing. Versus two years ago, we are growing. Versus 2019, we are we built an enormous amount of extra market share. So there is really no sign in terms of consumer choices that, that we are, we have strong equity position in China. Second, even in this moment, which is a paradox, the China economy has a moment of softness. Personally, I have a lot of trust in China, in the future of the China economy, but the government will need time to put this back, and I believe, personally, I believe they will do it.
We will see some good results from that, but in this moment, it's soft. And so, during the softness, the consumer is still buying more luxury. So the brands which are doing the best are the TOM FORD, the La Mer, the Le Labo, and I believe even in our competition for what is in the market, is the luxury. So it's kind of paradox. The consumers is going for luxury, which is very interesting. So is the consumer buying quality, equity, aspiration, or they're only looking for pricing? I think that's the answer. The consumer continue to look for equity, pricing and activation. The second proof I can bring is the proof of innovation. Our innovation is extraordinary in China.
Every time we launch a new product, which is really now well tailored on Chinese consumer, is very appreciated. Now, the innovation we just announced on Estée Lauder Re-Nutriv, which is the concept on longevity, the age reversal, new technique and ingredients, is an extraordinary new technology. This would be amazing in China because that's exactly what the consumer wants and want to see. Our innovation is strong, and the level of positive reaction to innovation in China is probably still the strongest in the world, which shows that the equity are appreciated. And finally, we do a lot of consumer research. By the way, you do the same, because sometimes I read reports, excellent reports of analysts, that, that shows, a certain consumer research.
In this consumer research, when you ask, "What are the most desirable brands in China today?" La Mer, Lauder, TOM FORD, Jo Malone, are always at the top consistently of this, of this. So I think our fundamental equity is intact, and in the future, the normalization of the discounting patterns will be a positive, that we get this issue out of our way gradually in the future, couple of years.
I'm gonna try to sneak in one quickly on North America before we run out of time. You spoke a bit already about The Ordinary, talked a bit about plans for Clinique. MAC has turned a corner, very, very much so. But I guess just the persistent question that I think would balance the whole conversation is: when do we start to see market share gains in, in North America more broadly? So just beyond the three brands I just mentioned, we've already discussed them, what are some of the key building blocks or visibility you may have into that would give you confidence in North America, and when, you know, to start to show aggregate better performance?
Again, thank you for the question. It's very important. First of all, you know that we are very focused on North America. It's our home market, and we want to go back in a position where we've been market share. However, be clear, North America results -2% instead of +5% that was planned, this is not the reason for our big EPS hit in fiscal year 2023. So I want to clarify, we need to do that, and we will do that, but this is not what will rebuild our profitability, is because at the end, North America business, the region, is a profitable business. And is a profitable business and is not growing, but was growing double-digit in the previous three years, by the way, still losing market share, but growing double-digit.
Last year was −2%. If you made just the calculation, if it was +5%, will this be changed completely the results of the company? No. I want to say, be clear on that, because, because of the reason we want to do that, but we want to do it in the right way, in a way which is sustainable for the long term, and not confuse urgency with just doing at any cost, things that then we regret in the long term. So in North America, we are trying to do the right thing for the long term, and we need to make some important changes. So the first one is, we need to go back to growth.
So in fiscal year 2024, our already expressed ambition is to go from one year, by the way, of decline, a little bit decline, -2%, to a growth year, and then prepare for 2025 and beyond to go back winning market share. We are not promising, committing to go in few months, go back winning market share. That's why I'm saying we have sense of urgency, but we are going to do it in the correct way, this is gradual. So you can expect that our efforts are focused on growing again North America in fiscal year 2024, and then putting the fundamentals to start rebuilding market share. What we are doing and what we have to do?
First of all, our distribution platform has to continue to be adjusted. We will continue to support the excellent department store service model, which is so important for our, for many of our consumers, particularly our historic consumer. But we need to do even more in specialty, and we are continuing increasing our distribution, for example, in Ulta with the, with Estée Lauder. We are doing now Kilian in Sephora, so we will continue to penetrate and expand the specialty multi segment. Third, we need to now rebuild online, leverage the investment we have done online in brand.com, which has been important. We need to leverage this more, and we need to do more online. We have announced that we will go into TikTok Shop with The Ordinary, which has been already launched, and with Estée Lauder brand soon.
Now this, to be clear, is a new job for Estée Lauder. We've been very conservative in making distribution decisions historically, again, with intent of protecting the equity of our brands. But in this case, we are going to learn in these channels how the consumer react with the brand, which has the most obvious fit, The Ordinary, and with the brand, it doesn't, because the brand that will need to use this channel to conquer more the young consumers. And, and so we are taking the challenge, and we are going for it. So we need to... In general, this is just a sign of the fact that we intend to be playing faster and better with the growing channels in the future, rather than being too defensive for brand protection on this one. So distribution, leverage the distribution adjustment. Then EMV.
We have built a lot of the percentage of our advertising in digital is going to increase gradually in all key platforms, including TikTok, on all brands. And so you are going to be seeing more of Estée Lauder programs tapping into the trend of influencers, celebrities, TikTok, and activity like this, in general. So our media efficiency is going to increase and most importantly, the impact. Now, to be clear, to do that, we have invested in 2023 to prepare for that. For example, to do that strategy, you need many more creative assets, and so you need to build the capability to go from that. We will have three times the creative asset that we are producing per brand. So it is an investment in capabilities, in preparation, and in changing the model. But we are ready now.
We have started already this quarter, seeing some important results. The other part is obviously probably the most important, is innovation. Now, in North America, the challenge beyond the one I've described is that the so-called indie brands, so the new brands, it is moment, a very low barrier to entry, and so there is a lot of competition on new brand. To be clear, many of these new brands are successful for the moment, and then they go down, but some remains and become important competitors. We have one in our portfolio, which is The Ordinary, which has done exactly, exactly that. So we need definitely in North America to compete with these brands better via more disruptive innovation and breakthrough innovation also on our big brands. So for example, in 2000...
In Fiscal 2023, we started making our innovation R&D, working directly with the North America, so develop products tailored to the North American business situation. Now, the paradox, we've done this for China, and we've done this for China, and we realized that maybe it was the time to do it for North America. But to be clear, North America has always been the first priority, so it's not a new thought. What is a new thought? To do innovation tailored to the indie brand competition in North America. That's a new thought, and that's a new thought that will be added to our way to do things in the future. So innovation is a very important thing.
The last thing I want to say is that the success of the market in the last years in North America has been a lot about fragrances. And we have our fragrance portfolio in luxury, which is doing well, but in North America, has been pushed a bit less than in the other markets so far. So we are going to accelerate our investments in pushing our luxury portfolio, and we are going to reactivate more also Lauder and Clinique fragrances in a very efficient way. So you will see that, and this will rebalance, because remember, we are still number one in makeup and number one in skincare. Where we are now number five is fragrances, and then we still Aveda, which is mainly salon business, and there's potential for the long term for hair care.
So there is a lot to be leveraged in the fragrance portfolio at Lauder, and then, as I said, as I started from it, rebuilding the acceleration of makeup and skincare as I illustrated. So I'm confident that we will go back growing in our home market, and then in the near future, we will validate all these improvements that I just described and go for market share growth again in our home business in the long term. In term of profitability, the profitability I want you to know is solid in North America. So the moment we solve the growth element, we are going to have a very important agents, well reactivated and very solid for the long term of the company.
Great. Thank you so much. We have to end there. I could stay all day, but yeah. Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much.