Beiersdorf runs smoothly thanks to Nivea

Nivea made a growth spurt in the first half of the year. That came as a relief of parent company Beiersdorf, as Chinese luxury consumers are letting the company down.

Compensation for China

Beiersdorf recorded an organic sales growth of 7.1 % in the first half of the year. The cosmetics group’s revenue was 5.2 billion euros, thanks to an 11.1 % growth at flagship brand Nivea. The core brand grew “in all key markets”, but especially in emerging markets and home market Germany.

Accounting for more than half of group sales at 2.95 billion euros, Nivea benefited from both volume growth and price increases. The results “more than compensated for ongoing headwinds in the challenging luxury market, particularly in China”, CEO Vincent Warnery said. Luxury label La Prairie is indeed suffering from declining consumer spending in China.

EBIT nevertheless fell from 852 to 838 million euros. Beiersdorf attributes this setback to frontloaded investments and marketing expenses, but believes to be on track for the rest of the year. Profit after tax remained more or less stable at 590 million euros.