Beiersdorf is eyeing beauty brand acquisitions to reduce its reliance on Nivea.
The German beauty giant this week cut its sales guidance for the year after its plans for getting Nivea back on track were taking longer than expected.
“Absolutely we need to acquire new brands,” said Beiersdorf CEO Vincent Warnery on a call with investors on 5 August, when asked if the company needs to acquire more brands to dilute the group's reliance on Nivea, which makes up over half of the group's total sales.
“Obviously I would prefer [acquisitions] to come rather late than soon, because I want the 22,000 employees of Beiersdorf to focus on the turnaround of Nivea and the growth of Eucerin and La Prairie.
“But we absolutely need to increase the number of brands we have in the portfolio.”
Any acquisition would be focused in the luxury space, rather than mass, where Beiersdorf already has the Nivea, Eucerin and Aquaphor brands.
Warnery continued: “I am not sure this is in the category of accessible skin care. We have the number one brand in the world, we just have to do better work with Nivea.
“So this is perhaps more into categories which are more into luxury, where we have a limited portfolio.
“Clearly we need to increase the portfolio, we need to be less dependent on Nivea, and that is something that we will look at.”
Beiersdorf said it will invest €100m more in consumer-facing activities to support Nivea’s turnaround, aimed at returning the heritage brand to growth within the next 18 months.
Sales of Nivea declined 6.8% in the first half of the year, reflecting “temporary sell-in headwinds including customer conflicts, a later than expected sun season start in Europe, as well as trade destocking and innovation phasing effects”, said Beiersdorf in a financial update on Monday (3 August).
Organic sales at the German beauty giant’s consumer business division, and across the group, are now expected to decline in the low-single-digit percentage range in the full 2026 financial year.
Previously, the Eucerin and La Prairie owner had expected sales to be flat or slightly growing for the year.
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