Americas burden Shiseido with declining sales and substantial net loss

Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido ended the first nine months of this year with a net loss of 43.9 billion yen (250 million euros). Sales fell by 4 % during the same period.

Serious deterioration

Last year, Shiseido still posted a profit of 754 million yen (4.2 million euros) in the same period. Moreover, worldwide sales fell to 693 billion yen (3.8 billion euros). There was actually a slight increase of 0.1 % to 219 billion yen (1.2 billion euros) on the Japanese market, but sales in China (including travel retail) took a heavy hit (- 7.6 % to 240 billion yen (1.3 billion euros).

A weaker performance in the Americas (with a decline in sales of more than 10 %) forced the company to take an exceptional accounting charge of 46 billion yen (260 million euros), FashionNetwork reports.