Beiersdorf's preliminary results reveal resilience
The owners of the Nivea brand said organic sales, adjusting for currency effects and acquisitions, were up 7.5 per cent to €5.97bn for 2008.
Cosmetics core enjoys highest growth
Sales in the consumer business segment, which houses Beiersdorf’s beauty and skin care brands, enjoyed the highest growth, rising 8.6 per cent in organic terms.
Beiersdorf’s CEO Thomas-B Quaas said: “At 8.6%, sales growth in our core Consumer business segment is squarely within the corridor we were aiming for at the beginning of the year.
“This means that Beiersdorf's skin and beauty care business again clearly outperformed the market and has demonstrated an encouraging ability to withstand the current economic climate.”
Adhesives business struggles
Meanwhile, the Tesa business unit experienced sales growth of only 1.2 per cent. Beiersdorf said the adhesives business is highly sensitive to the slowdown in the economy and, in a particular, the woes of the automotive industry.
Thomas-B Quaas said: “The recent developments at Tesa are market-driven – Tesa has been a fundamentally extremely sound company for years and is very well positioned for the future.”
Helped by the sale of Bode Chemie and Futuro Business, which raised €97m, profit after tax increased 25 per cent to €553m, beating market expectations according to a Bloomberg survey.
Nonetheless Beiersdorf shares, which joined the top-30 DAX index in December, dropped slightly in trading this morning. All the figures given by the company are preliminary and subject to audit.
