Beiersdorf Ag

Good morning and welcome to Biosdorf's first quarter conference call. Thank you for joining us today. I'm here with our CEO, Vincent Warnery, as well as our CFO, Astrid Herrmann. We would like to share with you Biosdorf's sales performance of the first three months of 2025. We will start with a presentation of our results, followed by a Q&A session. And with that, I'd like to hand over to Vincent.

Thank you, Christopher, and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. Astrid and I will now guide you through our sales figures for the first three months of 2025. Following a very strong performance in 2024, Basel delivered against expectations in the first quarter of the new financial year. Our first quarter's results are influenced by a strong prior year base and support our outlook for the full year. Our derma business deserves again a special mention as we continue to see a strong performance. Eucerin delivers not only in our established markets, but also expands successfully into new countries. At the same time, we are setting the foundation for our future success in China. With proactive measures, we are refocusing on EVA business to win in skincare with strategic innovations in these key markets. Delivering breakthrough innovation across our brands and expanding into more wide spaces remained the key driver of our growth of our first quarter results. In the first quarter, we delivered plus 2.3% organic sales growth in our consumer segment against a high-priority baseline, despite the stocking measures due to ongoing challenges in the travel retail market and in the face of a strategic repositioning in China. Excluding China, our consumers' business grew by 4% organically, which is within the range of the full-year guidance. Nivea sales increased by 2.5% compared to an exceptionally strong first quarter in 2024. Against the negative effect from the repositioning in China, this performance was primarily driven by strong skincare categories and outstanding double-digit sales growth in North America. Our derma brands, Eucerin and Aquaphor, achieved strong double-digit organic sales growth of 11.4% in the first three months, fueled by the continued success of our face and body categories, the further rollout of our breakthrough innovations, as well as the continued strength of Aquaphor. The healthcare business, which comprises the Anzaplast and Elastoplast plaster brands, reporting fantastic double-digit sales growth of 10.8%. This was supported by the launch of our next generation of plasters. Sales of La Prairie declined by 17.5% in organic terms in the first three months on the back of our best-performing quarter in 2024. This decline was mainly driven by continued challenges in China and the travel retail market, which we addressed by destocking activities. Tesa sales grew by an impressive double-digit 10.7%. On the one hand, this needs to be viewed in a context of quarterly phasing and a very low prior year comparison base. On the other hand, organic growth was supported by a strong electronics business, while the changes in the automotive market continue to impact the business. Overall, our growth results are well in line with expectations. At plus 2.5%, Nivea delivered a robust organic sales growth in the first quarter of 2025, especially compared to the strong previous year period. In Q1 2024, Nivea grew by an impressive 12.6%, which was largely driven by significant price increases and launches. And while pricing continues to play a role this year, its contribution to growth is substantially lower. In addition, we are putting our house in order in China, where we have decided to focus on what we do best at Biosoft, skin care. I will come back to that shortly. As mentioned in previous presentations, our Nivea innovation pipeline for 2025 is impressive. With the planned launches and relaunches this year, we expect an acceleration of profitable growth in the quarters to come. Our derma business with Usurin and Aquaphor continued its trajectory, showing excellent growth across regions. In our emerging market region, we achieved double-digit growth of 18.5%. This was supported by further wide space expansion in countries like India and a successful launch of our breakthrough innovation, Epicelin. The same applies to Europe, where we rolled out Epicelin last year. Overall, our derma business in Europe grew by 7.9%. In North America, our biggest market for Derma, we achieved double-digit growth of 10.4%. Just one year after the successful launch of Usurine Face in the US, we continued the momentum with a market entry of our hero ingredient, Tiamidol. New products from the Tiamidol-based Usurine Radiant Tone Collection hit the shelves in Q1 2025. In China, we are taking a bold approach to put our house in order. On EVA, we are shifting our focus away from less strategic and price-sensitive personal care categories and partners. Instead, we want to drive premiumization in skincare, expand through digital-first channels, and accelerate innovation. Of course, these repositioning efforts in China have a negative impact on our EVA results, which is also visible in our Q1 performance. but we are convinced that our measures are setting the foundation for future growth in this key market. On La Prairie, we continue to be challenged by the difficult situation in travel retail. Therefore, we significantly reduce our stock level, especially in Hainan over the course of the first quarter. In addition, we continue our efforts to modernize La Prairie by broadening the price range, driving innovation, putting more effort on e-commerce and consumer engagement, and changing the look and feel of the brand. Excluding the negative effect of our repositioning greater China, our consumer business would have grown by 4%. China remains a strategic priority, both mid and long term. With a bold repositioning of our China business, we are getting ready for the next big moment, the launch of Tiamidol in China in 2026. This follows the official approval of our patented ingredient Tiamidol in China last year. a major milestone for Biosoft. It is only the second hyperpigmentation ingredient to receive such approval in China, and the first since the implementation of the cosmetic supervision and administration regulation. Tiamidol is already a game-changer in China's cross-border e-commerce, with Nivea Lumina 630 growing 43% in 2024, and we are just getting started. In 2026, full market access will allow us to scale this breakthrough innovation even further. By launching Tiamidol across all our core brands, Nivea, Usuin, La Prairie, and Chantecaille, we are setting a new standard in hyperpigmentation in the country. Let us now have a look at the progress of our wind whisker growth drivers. Our focus on expanding into wide spaces paired with breakthrough innovation has proven to be the winning strategy. As mentioned on the full-year results call, Shantokai is expected to accelerate this year. Following the 4.5% growth in 2024, our luxury brand continued to build on its strong performance and delivered double-digit sales growth of 15.9% in the first three months of this year. After the launch of Shantokai in China in record time last year, we are taking another step, the introduction of Tiamidol under the Shantokai brand. We just launched the Brank Peony collection in the first markets, and we are confident that this strategic launch will unlock new growth opportunities for our luxury portfolio and further strengthen Biosoft's overall market position. In the first quarter, we further strengthened our global presence and commitment to key skincare markets like India and the U.S. In early 2025, we introduced seven Tiaminol-based Nivea Luminous face care products to the Indian market. marking a major step in bringing our innovation to a broader audience. Following the successful Usuin launch in October 2024, the Nivea rollout brings our hero ingredient to the mass market, supported by tailored formats with smaller, more affordable packaging to meet local consumer needs. In Q1, Nivea recorded impressive growth of 31.9% in India. In the US, we continued our strong momentum Following the successful launch of Eucerin Face last year, in the first quarter of this year, we expanded the portfolio with Tiamidol-based products under the Radiantone collection. We are directly addressing growing consumer demand for hyperpigmentation solutions and strengthening our footprint in the U.S. skincare market further. Driven by this successful launch, our Eucerin Face category delivered outstanding 37.2% growth in the U.S., I am also pleased to share that the global rollout of our epigenetic anti-aging innovation continues to be the best launch ever. And we are now present in more than 45 countries. Outstanding repurchase rates underline the product's relevance and consumer acceptance. In fact, the repurchase rate in our all-market Germany remains at twice the level of the top-performing launch of key competitors. We are also seeing excellent repurchase rates in other countries, for example, in Mexico. Even in our long-standing and trusted consumer brands like Anzaplast or Elastoplast, we consistently deliver groundbreaking innovations. At the beginning of this year, we introduced the next generation of plasters, the Sogon Skin Protection Plaster. With this innovation, we are setting a new benchmark in wound care. We're not just launching a product. Instead, we are challenging old myths like wounds heal best in fresh air. This advanced hydrocolloid innovation supports faster healing and strengthens our position in the category. Through digital in-store campaigns, we aim to shift mindsets and improve healing outcomes for millions of consumers. And it is paying off. Our healthcare business grew by 10.8% in Q1, supported by this strong innovation and our commitment to advancing everyday skincare. No other to you, Astrid, for the financial of the first quarter.

Thank you, Vincent, and good morning from my side as well. I am happy to walk you through our first quarter 2025 results in more detail. Let's start by reviewing our sales performance at both segment and group levels. In the first quarter of 2025, Byersdorf Consumer Division recorded organic sales growth of plus 2.3%. Due to negative foreign exchange impacts, nominal sales grew by plus 1.9%. Our TESA division achieved strong double-digit organic sales growth of plus 10.7% during the same period, resulting in nominal growth of plus 11.2%. Overall, the group delivered organic sales growth of plus 3.6% and nominal growth of plus 3.3%. Now, let's take a closer look at our regional performance for the first quarter of 2025. In Western Europe, we achieved organic sales growth of plus 2.1%, with particularly strong results in Northern and Southern Europe. It is important to note that our luxury travel retail business has negatively affected our overall growth in Europe, as it is reported in our Western Europe figures. The negative impact amounts to more than 200 basis points of growth. In Eastern Europe, our sales recorded a slight increase of plus 0.3%, primarily due to a very high comparison base from the first quarter of 2024. The Americas region concluded the first quarter of 2025 with an organic sales growth of plus 3.7%. North America achieved a growth rate of plus 3.0% with Nivea and Derma generating fantastic double-digit growth. Latin America experienced growth of plus 4.3% in the first three months of this year building on a particularly strong performance in the same period last year. The Africa, Asia, Australia region recorded an organic sales growth of plus 1.9%. The numbers are significantly affected by the repositioning measures we are taking on Nivea in China. Excluding this impact, the growth rate would have been in the high single-digit range. Now let us review the TASA business performance for the first quarter of 2025. During this period, TES achieved a double-digit growth rate of plus 10.7%, primarily driven by the strong performance of the electronics segment. It is important to note that this exceptional growth is influenced by a low comparison base from the first quarter of the previous year, as well as phasing effects related to the transition of manufacturing from China to India in the electronics industry. At the same time, I would like to flag the ongoing challenges in the automotive market, particularly in Europe. Recent developments regarding tariffs are expected to further complicate conditions for the sector, adding to the existing pressures. While the first quarter has demonstrated strong growth, the overall market dynamics present a mixed outlook, leading us to maintain our guidance in light of the challenges ahead. This concludes our review of the first quarter 2025. I will now hand over to Vincent, who will give you an update on our outlook for the full year.