"The global COVID-19 crisis is changing our life and work radically," said Stefan De Loecker, chief executive officer (CEO) of Beiersdorf AG. "As expected, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the company's results for the first quarter."
With a strong balance sheet and high net liquidity of more than 4 billion euros, Beiersdorf was "well equipped to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis," according to the German company.
Organic sales of Beiersdorf's consumer business segment including brands such as NIVEA and EUCERIN fell by 3.3 percent in the first three months of 2020 to 1.58 billion euros.
Sales of the company's important brand NIVEA only fell by 0.6 percent, while the Derma business unit with the brands EUCERIN and AQUAPHOR even achieved strong sales growth of 11.5 percent, according to Beiersdorf.
The selective cosmetics brand LA PRAIRIE was "particularly hit by the drop in international travel" and recorded a 35.8 percent decline in sales, Beiersdorf noted.
The Africa-Asia-Australia region reported that nominal sales fell by 6.4 percent to 494 million euros, partly due to the sale of the Chinese hair care brand SLEK, according to Beiersdorf. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a particular decline in sales performance at premium skincare brand LA PRAIRIE.
In North and Latin America, organic sales still grew 10.6 percent to 337 million euros, according to Beiersdorf. Due to the acquisition of the U.S. sun cream brand Coppertone in 2019, total business grew by a nominal 26.5 percent.
For 2020, Beiersdorf was "unable to currently project the future development or the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis", but noted that the targets set in the company's guidance issued in March were unlikely to be achieved.
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