Nivea-maker Beiersdorf has posted an organic group sales increase of 6.0% in the first three months of its financial year, to €1.95 billion.
In nominal terms, this was a 7.8% increase on the previous year's figure of €1.81 billion.
Its consumer business posted sales of €804 million in Europe in the quarter – a 5.3% increase in organic terms, however, some markets in the region performed stronger than others, the group reported.
Country By Country
While sales were up in Germany and Austria in the period, Beiersdorf reported that those in Italy and Spain ‘fell short’ of the previous year.
Western European sales were up 6.2% on the previous year in the group’s consumer division, driven by the positive performance of its travel business.
In Eastern Europe, sales growth of 1.3% was achieved, despite ‘challenging retail conditions in Poland’, the group reported.
Organic sales for the group’s consumer division were up 4.4% in the Americas region, with North America seeing sales growth of 3.7%.
The Africa/Asia/Australia region grew ‘sharply’, by 10.6%, the company noted.
The group’s tesa business posted a 0.9% increase in organic sales in the quarter, to €190 million.
‘Solid Start’
“Beiersdorf had a solid start into the first three months of 2019 in both business segments – Consumer and tesa,” commented Stefan De Loecker, CEO of Beiersdorf AG.
“Sales growth in the Consumer Business Segment outperformed the market and was broad-based, while tesa continued to grow, despite a difficult market environment. Recognising local consumer and market trends and responding to them on an individual basis helped us boost sales in all regions,” added De Loecker.
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the business's performance, analysts Liberum Capital reported, 'In addition to the top-line growth agenda, Beiersdorf’s management is also focused on driving solid gross margin uplift through price/mix, efficiencies and cost discipline. The group is targeting efficiencies in trade promotions and advertising spend to help close the EBIT margin gap with the competition and is focused on improving cash conversion and working capital.
'We expect Beiersdorf to deliver 4% LfL sales growth and 40bps p.a. EBIT margin expansion, underpinning a 9% EPS CAGR over 2017-2022E,' it added.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
