Beiersdorf Ag

Welcome to the Q3 results 2025 conference call of Beiersdorf AG. I'm Moritz, the call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Christopher Sheldon, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter conference call. I'm here with our CEO, Vincent Warnery, and our CFO, Astrid Herrmann. As always, we will start with the presentation of our sales performance of the quarter and the first nine months of the year, followed by a Q&A session. And with that,

I'd like to hand over to Vincent. Thank you, Christopher, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call. Astrid and I will provide an overview of our sales performance and key developments of the third quarter and the first nine months of the year. The third quarter continued to be impacted by a very challenging market environment. Despite the headwinds, BioServe was able to improve its performance versus the prior quarter. Our Derma business continues to outperform, delivering outstanding double-digit growth and winning market shares across regions. In September, we also kicked off two major Nivea launches. In our face care franchise, we rolled out our breakthrough ingredient, epicillin. In our deodorant range, we launched a new derma control line. While the initial impact on Q3 was limited due to timing, these launches are a key building block for performance in Q4. We've also initiated a strategic rebalancing of the Nivea core portfolio by broadening our efforts beyond face care to other skincare categories and reinforcing high potential categories like deodorants. And finally, in a continued challenging market, La Prairie returned to growth in Q3, supported by improved momentum in China. Let's take a closer look at how these developments are shaping our recent performance. The third quarter shows signs of gradual improvement while we continue to see volatility across key markets. Nivea continues to face pressure from an even weaker mass market environment, especially in emerging markets, resulting in an organic sales decline of 0.4%. The major launches initiated in September only had a limited impact on Q3. Excluding the strategic repositioning in China, which is now completed, Nivea's organic sales growth would have been positive. Our derma business with Eucerin and Aquaphor once again delivered strong double-digit growth of 12.4%, reaffirming its role as a key growth driver in our portfolio. Our healthcare business, which includes the Anzaplast and Elastoplast brands, generated outstanding growth of 9.8%, still supported by the successful rollout of our second skin plaster innovation. And despite ongoing market volatility, La Prairie continued its sequential quarterly improvement as planned, turning to positive organic sales growth of plus 1.6% in Q3. Overall, our consumer business recorded organic sales growth of 2.1%, in the third quarter. Let me point out that our skincare organic sales growth increased to 4% in Q3 compared to 2.6% in the first half of the year. Delta's performance in the third quarter was flat, in line with our expectations, and impacted by the difficult environment in the automotive industry. The electronics segment on the other end delivered a positive contribution driven by a strong performance in Asia. Overall, this results in group organic sales growth of 1.7% in Q3. Looking at our derma business in more detail, once again, we delivered double-digit growth of 12.4% in the third quarter, a fantastic result on top of the tough 2024 comparison base when we first launched EpiCellin. This underlines the strengths of our innovation pipeline and our ability to identify and capture white space opportunities. It proves that we can deliver outstanding results and outperform competition even in markets that have slowed down substantially compared to previous years. Innovation remains the cornerstone of our success. This applies both to breakthrough ingredients and to the regular relaunches across our portfolio. Epicelim, launched just a year ago, continues its successful rollout and remains a key growth driver in our Derma portfolio. Tiamidol, which has been on the market for seven years, continues to grow double-digit. At Europe's leading dermatology congress EADV, Tiamidol was recognized as the only dermocosmetic active ingredient delivering effective treatment of hyperpigmentation at the root cause. This was endorsed by a newly established global consensus for the treatment of hyperpigmentation, a powerful validation of our science-led approach. But innovation doesn't stop with our hero ingredients. We continue to invest in regular relaunches across our portfolio. With our new Eucerin Dermopure clinical range, for example, we are not simply introducing a new product line. We are delivering science-based solutions for acne, a skin concern that affects up to 85% of people globally. Acne is a leading reason for dermatological consultation and one of the fastest growing categories in skincare. Our derma business is not only performing across categories, it's also delivering across regions. In North America, our largest market for derma, we achieved outstanding growth of plus 56% in the Eucerin face category, despite the slow overall market. The launch of the Eucerin Radiant Tone range with Tiamidol earlier this year is showing excellent traction. In Europe, we are excited to report double digit growth of plus 10%. This was fueled by the continuous success of EpiCellin, which is reinforcing our innovation leadership in the region. Looking at Northeast Asia, the entry of Eucerin into the domestic market in China has exceeded expectations with exceptional organic sales growth of plus 86% in the third quarter. Following the official approval of our patented ingredient Tiamidol last year, we are already seeing early success in the market. The Eucerin Tiamidol Serum has already achieved a double-digit market share, making it the number one derma anti-pigment serum in China. Last but not least, we'll be launching Eucerin in Japan and other white space next month. With Nivea, we successfully started the launch of our breakthrough ingredient, Episeline, in September. Building on the strong results achieved with Usurin, we are now scaling this innovation into the mass market. This is the biggest Nivea launch of all time. While the impact on our Q3 figures was still limited due to the timing of the launch, the first weeks already performed above our expectations. we are seeing strong early traction, including number one category positions across key European markets. In France, for example, the Nivea epigenetic serum reached the number one position in hygiene and beauty products. And in Germany and Austria, we secured the number one face care position at DM, the region's largest drugstore retailer. The initial strong launch performance is also visible in our September net sales figures for Nivea, with organic sales growth of plus 7.8%. A key driver of this momentum, alongside the very recent Nivea IPCN launch, has been our Nivea DermaControl deodorant range. This is where our skincare expertise meets the high performance of personal care, the skinification of deodorants. While our recent launches are encouraging, we acknowledge that Nivea's overall performance has fallen short of our initial expectations this year, particularly in the second quarter. So let me remind you of the journey we are on. Four years ago, we put a strategic focus on skincare, our core strengths. We are committed to innovation, expanding into wide spaces, guided by our belief that beauty is global and offer-driven. This strategy has delivered outstanding results. Since 2022, 2023, and 2024, Nivea achieved exceptional growth, in some cases even double digits. That success gives us confidence in the path that we have chosen. Now, to ensure that Nivea continues on the strong growth trajectory, we are making targeted adjustments with a proactive rebalancing of our portfolio. What does it mean? we are broadening our focus within skincare. While face care remains a key category, we are balancing our R&D and marketing investments across other skincare segments. We are also reinforcing deodorants as a strategic growth pillar, a category where Nivea has a strong right to win through innovation. Nivea is the value for Monet brand and stands for affordable prices, and that remains unchanged. While we see customers' willingness to pay for breakthrough innovations like Tiamidol and Epicellin, most of our portfolio continues to be priced at accessible price ranges. We know there is work ahead, but we also know that we are capable of and we are taking action to bring Nivea back to stronger growth and continue building on its legacy as one of the world's most trusted skincare brands. And let's not forget, as we have always said, even a brand as established as Nivea still offer significant wide-space opportunities. A great example is India, where we launched Nivea FS earlier this year and are continuing our double-digit trajectory. We are equally excited about the potential of Nivea TMI Middle in China, where we are just beginning to build momentum. This leads me to our Nivea repositioning efforts in China, which were completed at the end of Q3. Performance has stabilized, and EVI in China is ready back to growth in October, setting the stage for acceleration in the remaining fourth quarter. Our strategy in China is clear. We aim to win through innovation in skincare. With Tiamidol as our hero ingredient, we are confident that it provides a distinct competitive edge in this highly dynamic market. China remains a key opportunity for us in the mid to long term. It's a demanding environment. But with the right portfolio and continued innovation, we are convinced that Nivea is well positioned to compete even against strong local brands. Coming to La Prairie, which is back to growth. While the market environment remains volatile, La Prairie delivered a solid Q3 performance with growth of plus 1.6%. This was driven in part by continued momentum in China, which achieved growth of 3% and an outstanding double-digit sellout. I'm also pleased to announce a major milestone in our global expansion strategy. After successfully establishing Nivea Face and Usuin in India, we've now expanded our premium portfolio with the launch of La Prairie exclusively on Nica. This marks our entry into one of the world's most dynamic and fast-growing beauty markets, an important step in strengthening our global footprint. Before I hand over to Astrid, let me turn to our e-commerce performance. e-commerce continues to be a key growth driver for Biosoft. In the first nine months, we achieved organic sales growth of 16.6%, with Q3 accelerating to 19.2%. We are gaining market share everywhere, with particularly strong momentum in emerging markets and Europe. Our luxury e-commerce business continues to grow, fueled by targeted online activations, while our Dermar portfolio shows global strength delivering double-digit growth across all regions. Astrid will now take us through the TESA results and our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you Vincent. Now let us review TESA's business performance for the first nine months of 2025. Despite ongoing market challenges, TESA delivered 2.0% organic sales growth year-to-date. Rising uncertainty and the potential impact of U.S. tariffs continue to affect demand, particularly in Europe and North America, while Asia continues to be a strong growth contributor. Our electronics business was a key growth driver supported by strong demand from major customers, particularly in Asia. The automotive segment continues to navigate a complex and volatile market environment. Despite the challenges, The segment showed resilience and delivered growth in some regions, particularly in Asia Pacific, where we are winning new customer projects. TESA's consumer segment remains under pressure, especially in Europe. Nevertheless, it achieved growth over the first nine months, supported by a solid performance in the third quarter. Finally, I'd like to highlight a leadership change. Dr. Khorosh Bahrami has succeeded Dr. Norman Goldberg as CEO of TESA. With over 30 years of international leadership in the adhesive industry, Dr. Bahrami brings strong leadership and a clear commitment to drive customer value and sustainable growth. We thank Dr. Goldberg for his transformative leadership and look forward to continuing TESA's successful course under Dr. Bahrami's direction. Now let's continue with our nine-month sales performance in more detail. In the first nine months of 2025, Biostrofe Consumer Division grew by 2.0% organically. Due to unfavorable foreign exchange effects, nominal sales declined slightly to 6.25 billion euros. The Taser Division reported solid organic growth of 2.0% for the same period. In nominal terms, net sales remained flat at 1.29 billion euros. Overall, the group generated 7.5 billion euros net sales in the first nine months of 2025, translating into 2.0% organic sales growth. Now let's take a closer look at the performance of our brands within the consumer business segment. Vincent has already provided an overview of the third quarter sales results, so I will focus on a summary of our brand's performance in the first nine months of this year. In a persistently challenging market environment, Nivea delivered modest growth of 0.6% in the first nine months. Our performance was further impacted by higher competition from local brands and the strategic repositioning in China, which we successfully completed at the end of Q3. In addition, our innovation pipeline was weighted towards the second half of the year, especially Q4. Key launches, including Epicillin and Bioderma Control, were launched in September and only had a minor effect on Q3. They are expected to be a strong pillar of our growth in Q4. Derma sustained its strong momentum with an outstanding performance over the first nine months, achieving 12.3% sales growth, clearly outperforming the market and our peers. User-in-face delivered exceptional results. driven by the successful rollout of Epicillin and the launch of Tiamidol in the U.S. Growth was further supported by the remarkable success in Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Mexico, as well as the successful launch of Eucerin in domestic China and India. Building on the strong momentum from the first half of the year, healthcare continued to reinforce its market position in Q3, delivering a remarkable 8.8% sales growth for the first nine months. Australia and Indonesia delivered double-digit growth both in Q3 and across the nine-month period, while Germany also accelerated to double-digit growth in Q3. For La Prairie, we have seen a gradual improvement quarter by quarter, resulting in a return to growth in the third quarter. This recovery was supported by an improving performance in China, particularly a strong e-commerce business during Q2 and Q3. Let's take a closer look at the organic sales growth of our consumer business in the first nine months across regions. In Europe, we grew by 1.2%, with Western Europe growing 1.7%, and Eastern Europe slightly declining with 0.7%. Western Europe was negatively impacted by the global luxury travel retail business, particularly during the beginning of the year. Eastern Europe faced pressure from a broader market slowdown and retailer conflicts, particularly in the first half. The Americas region concluded the first nine months with a robust growth of 2.2%. North America showed a mixed performance with excellent results in DERMA driven by the Tiamido launch in the U.S., while facing some headwinds in the mass business and with Coppertone in a tough sun care market. Latin America grew by 2.0%, also reflecting a mixed performance. Eucerin delivered strong double-digit growth with outstanding results in key markets such as Mexico and Brazil, while our Nivea business was impacted by a general market slowdown, particularly in the Dio category, and by increased competition from local brands. The Africa-Asia-Australia region delivered solid sales growth of 2.9%, despite a negative impact from the ongoing Nivea portfolio cleanup in China, which was successfully concluded by the end of Q3 as planned. Strong growth was recorded in markets such as India and Japan. With that, I would like to hand over to Vincent, who will provide the outlook for the rest of the year.

Thank you, Astrid. Let us conclude with our guidance for the rest of the year 2025. The consumer business delivered plus 2% organic sales growth over the first nine months, with an improvement visible in Q3. At the same time, we saw a further deceleration of the market in the third quarter, especially in emerging markets, which is affecting the core of our mass market business. As a result, we are adjusting our full year guidance to around 2.5% organic sales growth for consumers. Our expected growth for the fourth quarter is based on the following pillars. Nivea is entering the final quarter with a strong innovation pipeline. We recently launched EpiCellin, our breakthrough innovation in skincare, along with our new derma-controlled deodorant. These launches are still in the early stage, and I expect it to gain traction and visibility throughout the fourth quarter. Early indicators and the September performance are positive, as highlighted in our presentations. The remainder of the year will be driven by the performance of these launches as well as the strengthening of Nivea core business. To support both, we have implemented targeted rebalancing measures to reinforce our core categories while at the same time supporting the successful rollout of our innovations. In China, The strategic repositioning of Nivea, which had a negative effect on our performance during the first nine months, has now been completed and will no longer weigh on our results going forward. Our luxury business with La Prairie is beginning to show encouraging signs of improvement, the return to growth in the third quarter. Finally, our derma segment continues to perform strongly. We expect double-digit growth over the full year, while Q4 is expected to remain below the nine-month performance due to an exceptionally strong fourth quarter in 2024 when Episeline was rolled out initially. We still confirm our EBIT margin guidance with an improvement of 20 basis points excluding special factors in the consumer segment for the full year. In the TESA business segment, we confirm our guidance of 1% to 3% organic sales growth and an EBIT margin excluding special factors At group level, we expect organic sales growth of around 2.5% with the EBIT margin, excluding special factors, slightly above last year's level. We continue to be committed to outperforming the market over mid-term, driven by innovation and strategic expansion into wide spaces. On profitability, as we have stated in the past, we'll not sacrifice long-term value creation potential of a shorter margin optimization. Nevertheless, remain committed to profitable growth with AB growing at least as fast as the top line. We'll provide further guidance for 2026 and beyond in our full year 2025 goal. Now over to you, Christopher, for the Q&A.

Thank you, Vincent. Now we're ready to go to the Q&A. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your phone. And please note that we have a maximum of two questions per caller. And we will start with Patrick Follin of Barclays this morning. Pat, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. Thanks, Chris. And good morning, Astrid and Vincent. Just two questions for me, maybe focusing on Nivea first. You know, you had a strong September performance. Was this mainly due to the Epicillin sell-in here and your DermaDO performance, or was there a wider recovery in the core portfolio here? And my second question is that you talk about value for money for the Nivea brand. Are there any changes you are making to the current pricing strategy with Nivea in any of your markets? And in terms of the Epicillin price point in Europe, Are you still targeting at 25 to 30 euros pricing? Thank you.

Thank you, Patrick. On your first question, yes, absolutely. The success of the month of September is mostly due to the launch of Epiceline, Niva Epiceline, and Dermacontrol. The core business, the core market has been in line with Q2. Epiceline is really doing extremely well. I receive every day Very good sell-out results. You know, I mentioned number one hygiene and beauty product in France. I mentioned also Germany. I was looking also at Italy. This is already the number one serum in Italy. This is the number one serum in Netherlands. This is the number one face care product in Switzerland, in Belgium, in Spain, in Portugal. So clearly, it was already by far the best ever launch in saline, but we see clearly sell-out results. going in the right direction. Derma Control, we launched it a bit later. We are doing extremely well. I mean, Romania, we are back to the best ever market share in DO. We are regaining market share in DO in Germany, so I feel also very positive about that. On your question about the value for money, I think you have really to remember that there are only two expensive products in the range of Nivea, which are the Epicillin and the Tiamidol launch. The rest of the product are priced between 2 and 2 euro and 4 euros, so there is no issue of price positioning. This being said, we are currently launching Epiceline, and the way the business is managed, you know, we have some promotions. So, for example, if you go to the UK, you know that Boots is promoting the product at 24 pounds, for example, versus a normal price at 29 pounds. We have also some promotions. So we will fine-tune. We'll see a little bit how the first months are working. And if we feel the need to go below €29, could be €28, €27, we'll do it just to be sure that we have absolutely the right price elasticity. On Dermacontrol, we are €2.80, so absolutely no issue. So the only open question, and again, we'll have the market results soon, is do we decrease the price of epicillin by €1 or €2 in Europe? Knowing that, as you might remember, in emerging markets, we are pricing epicillin below, and we are €22, having also specific packaging, which allows to keep the same margin, but at a lower price.

Okay, thank you. Just to clarify one thing there, just on pricing, do you feel comfortable with the price points you have in your current portfolio as we go into next year?

Absolutely. I mean, the prices are between two and four euros. What we are clearly trying to do is to reduce the price increase we'll do next year. You might remember that we were the only brand doing a price increase in 2025, which created some customer retaliations. We try to minimize that next year, focusing really on the products and innovation where we are bringing a real added value to consumers. Great. Thank you.

And the next question is from Celine Panotti of J.P. Morgan. Celine, please go ahead.

Good morning. My first question is on the market growth. Vincent, you said that the market has decelerated, especially in emerging markets, and you adjusted your guide for that. How do you feel the company can deliver as you look into 2026? So, given that you're talking about the rebalancing of investment for Nivea, I wonder as well if you can provide on how you feel in terms of your level of investment in the deodorant and personal care part, and whether for 2026 we should expect, you know, that you have, you know, you need this extra investment and maybe a limited margin extension. That's my first question. I'll give you the second one after.

On your first question, Céline, so what we clearly see, and I mentioned that in my speech, that the market, the skincare market is difficult. And we have, if you look at the year-to-date figures, we are more, we are around 0.5, 1% growth on the market. With, of course, different dynamics in mass market, you are around 5. Derma, this is the new news, you are more into the 3, 4%. And luxury is still at minus 5%. So this is a market which is not growing as much as expected. We are expecting a small recovery in the months to come. We see, for example, that the derma market in the U.S. is doing better, and we are overperforming this market. We see also luxury. I was mentioning China, but I also saw some good figures in luxury going in the same direction. So Overall for the market growth this year, one between 1% and 2%, and we believe that we go slightly above next year. What is making us optimistic in a way is that the worst market dynamics is a derma market, and this is a market which really used to be growing at double digits, and we are now into a market dynamics which is around 3%, 4%, and this is a market where we are overperforming by a factor between two and three times the market, because we are coming with innovation and because we are supporting those innovations. And this is why, you know, when I look at the dynamics next year on EVA, I feel a little bit better than I would say in 2025 because we have the launches that we are doing right now. And I mentioned Epiceline. but we have also a launch plan which is much better balanced next year with more launches in the first semester versus this year and something where we can really have a more balanced dynamics launches versus score. And we are indeed, thanks also to the courageous decisions we have taken on prices, we are able to manage a pretty good gross margin, allowing us to invest, to continue to invest on those launches. So we will rebalance a little bit the investment between the face care premium product. We had to launch both Tiamidal and Epicillin in 2025. So rebalance this money into not only other skin care categories, also on more affordable face care proposals, for example, in the emerging market, but also on the other end. So With the current P&L equation, we can increase the marketing spendings beyond EVR. And of course, on DERMA, there is no question we will continue to invest more.

All right, I was just maybe to follow up on that, asking whether, you know, the 50 basis points plus margin extension, that's your research target, how you feel about it going into 26. So that's my follow-up. And then my second question, Alice, now, can you provide a bit more details about Europe, which really went back to good growth at 3%? Was there a travel retail impact there, if you can elaborate? Tell us what Quantified is, and how do you feel about the overall consumer and retail environment? Of course, you have the benefit of the sell-out and selling of epithelin, but overall, how do you feel the European market is developing as we look into the quarter of the month?

On your first question, so we'll not give a guidance for 2026 and we'll give that in 2025, but we maintain the idea that we have to overperform the market and continue to grow profitably. So we'll come back to that in three months. On your question about Europe, yes, travel retail has an impact on the performance of Europe. This is a 40 base point impact because we are overperforming this market with La Prairie, but this is a double digit negative market, so this has an impact on Europe. When you look at the question sell-in versus sell-out, the fact that we see some improvement in Deo, for example, which was really the biggest market share loss in 2025 in Europe, is making us more optimistic. If you look at Germany, which is by far our biggest DAO market, we have been gaining market share over the last three months in a row, which is good news. We see also that the outstanding success of the sun season in Europe We grew 12% in the market, which was growing double-digit, but this is really one of the best performance in sun. It's also giving us some good momentum. So there, I would say we feel positive. Sun care is positive. The question is face care. As I said, you know, the sell-out results we are getting from specific uterus is promising. But you remember my story. Selling is one thing. Sellout is another thing. Repurchase is absolutely essential. And this is what we'll be able to measure in the first quarter. So neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but some good signals that should give us some better performance in Europe next year.

Thank you. And the next. The next question is from Jeremy Fialco of HSBC. Jeremy, please go ahead.

Hi, yeah, so a couple of questions from me. First one, just to go into the Eastern Europe region. That was kind of pretty negative within the period, so just what's going on there. And then the second question is just on kind of capital return. You've done the 500 million share buyback for the last couple of years. What do you think the potential would there be to increase that in 2026, given where the share prices have come to, given the existing authority that you have got, if that's something you think would be on your agenda to bring out the board. Thanks.

First question, yes, it did. Eastern European used to grow double digit. The market was really booming. It suddenly deteriorated vigorously, moving from a plus 12 to plus 2, plus 3%. There's also an interesting competitive environment which has changed. If you look at a country like Poland, 1% of the growth is coming to Korean brands, and not really big Korean brands, but Korean brands that are there for six months and then replaced by others. So all of us, all the global brands are suffering from that. What also worsens the situation are the few customer issues that we have been able to solve. So that's something where we should have a positive momentum in 2026. But the key question is, and this is where obviously rebalancing the portfolio for us, is to be sure that we are not only investing on Epicelin, on Tiamidal, but we have also a strong action on deodorants. This is by far our biggest market in Eastern Europe. So that's what we are doing right now. And I mentioned the example of Romania, for example, where we reached our best ever market share in DO. That's something which is giving us some hope. On your question about share buyback, we just closed the second time we did share buyback. So you have to allow us to discuss with the supervisory board at the end of the year what we want to do. What is essential, you remember, is that in terms of priority, we know that we have too much cash available and the priority should and will continue to be M&A.

Thank you. And the next question would be from Guillaume Delmas from UBS. Guillaume, good morning. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Vincent Astrid and Christopher. Two questions for me, please. The first one on the 2025 revised outlook. I mean, still trying to reconcile this updated guidance of around 2.5% for consumer demand. That seems to imply a little bit more than 4% organic cells within Q4. But you also have that very strong momentum of Nivea in September growing nearly 8%. So I'm wondering why you would expect such a sequential slowdown between September and the fourth quarter. And then my second question, it's on the changes you are making to your strategy, particularly that stronger support behind more skincare categories and DO. I mean, I guess first, when do you think we should start seeing some benefits from this? I mean, could it be immediate or is it more of a slow burn? And secondly, given that your margin guidance for the year, for 2025, for consumer is unchanged, Would it be fair to assume that at this stage, it's much more about reallocation of resources rather than an overall increase in your marketing budget? Thank you very much.

So much, Guillaume. On your first question, you should not forget that obviously when you launched a new, I mean, the biggest launch ever, EPCLIN on EVA, plus a range of six or seven SKUs of DAO in September, you cannot continue the same momentum for the next three months. So you will have the pipeline effect will be, I would say, September, October, and then you have the sellout So this is why we have indeed planned the growth with the full success of those launches, but a core business which will not improve dramatically. So that's the assumption of the Q4. This is why we wanted to come with a more realistic assumption for Q4, which is by the way consistent with what all of you thought. On the rebalancing, no, I mean the reason why we came with Q2 and we decided to change the guidance on EBIT moving from plus 50 base points to plus 20 base points is simply because we knew that those big launches were coming in Q4 and we knew that it would have been a shame not to support them just because we wanted to deliver in a kind of dogmatic way the first guidance we gave on EBIT. So the 20 base points that we, the 30 base points that we decided to allocate to marketing budget are exactly the money we're going to spend in Q4. And we have, you know, the biggest ever spending on the face care launch on IVEA and the biggest ever spending on the DAO launch on IVEA. On top of, of course, continuing to support the launch of all the launches and the activity of DERMA and the big omission in China with W11. So no change in the media strategy, just using the 30 base points that we freed in the Q2 to support those big launches in the weeks to come.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Then the next question is from Ulrike Dawa from Dow Jones. Ulrike, good morning. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I hope you can hear me. I don't have much of a voice today. Sorry. I'd like to ask a question about the U.S. import tariffs. After the failed tariff deal between Switzerland and U.S., the import tariffs are now 39%, which are affecting La Prairie. And I was just wondering, will you be able to pass on the additional cost to customers How much more expensive will the even already expensive products deal and is that still not enough for a strategy change or do you consider maybe producing more in the US now like many other companies more or less voluntarily are planning to do? Also, the overall import tariffs exposure. You said that a lot of the products for the US market are produced in Mexico or other countries. Can you quantify additional costs related to those new import tariffs by quarter, by full year? Is there any additional information you might be able to provide? I have some other questions about caring. Maybe you can ask that later.

Your question about La Prairie. So, yes, indeed, the Swiss government has not yet been able to negotiate tariffs. a reduced tax level tariff increase with the U.S., so we have indeed this extremely difficult situation. We have been, of course, anticipating the change of service, so we are covered, I would say, in terms of stocks in the U.S. For the time being, we are waiting, wait and see, in a way. We do not believe today that it will be wise to implement immediately the tariff increase on the La Prairie prices, which, as you mentioned, are already very high. You imagine that in percentage it's high, but in absolute value it's extremely high for La Prairie. So we are not planning to do that. I can imagine that we have, anyway, a gross margin which is pretty comfortable on La Prairie. We will see the way other competitors are acting. What is absolutely out of the question is to produce in the US because the strength of Far Prairie is made in Switzerland. That's the story of the brand. So we'll absolutely not produce in the US. We'll continue to produce in Switzerland. On your second question, you rightly mentioned that we are in a way lucky because we have one big part of the production that we are selling in the U.S. is produced in the U.S. and the other big part is in Mexico where there was no additional tariffs. So we have today an economic equation which is pretty good for our business. Yes, we have a few products produced in Europe. So they will be affected by the 15% health increase, but it's really a minor, minor part of the range, and we'll be able to absorb that either through small price increases or just by managing value engineering projects. So all in all, yes, La Prairie is an issue, but it's a small part of the business in the U.S. The rest of the range is, in a way, protected.

May I ask one more question about the caring brands they were up? for sale, have you looked at them and considered or don't they really match your portfolio strategy?

You know, Erika, we are good in one category, which is skincare, skincare, skincare, and we are lucky enough that this is by far the biggest beauty category in the world. We have no expertise in perfume, so it would have been a mistake to enter this field without any expertise, so we did not even look at the project.

Thank you very much.

And the next question is from Bernadette Hogg of Reuters. Good morning, Bernadette. Please go ahead.

Sorry, I was still muted. Thank you for taking my question. So it's a bit of a recap question on the slowdown of the markets in the emerging markets for skin care. So do you see these factors as temporary or is it more structural? And how long do you anticipate it lasting and what are the major causes of the slowdown? Thank you.

A clear deceleration. We used to have an emerging market, skin care growing double digit. We end up to a level which is close to low single digit, even negative in some countries. There are a few phenomenons which are taking place. Obviously, Latin America is hit by not only the political uncertainties, but also all the discussions about U.S. tariffs, not U.S. tariffs. And Mexico is a country where obviously the market was suffering with that. We see in other countries the development of simplified routines. You know, people, this is what they call the skinimalism trend, where people are buying less product and some of that cheaper. So the only solution, and this is what we are doing pretty successfully with Derma, is to come with innovation. In fact, the worst market dynamics in the emerging market is the derma market, and we are growing extremely high with double-digit growth in each and every market. We gain market share everywhere. So the recipe that we have been using successfully with Usurin, we are using it now with Nivea, with also some changes and some rebalancing. For example, I mentioned already the fact that it's the first time we are launching the same global product with two different packaging proposals, so one allowing us to sell it at below €22 in emerging markets, and that's much cheaper than the €29 we have in Europe. We are also putting a lot of focus on products like Nivea Soft in India, which is a fantastic accessible product, but also Facial in Brazil, which has a 30% market share, In skincare, we are rebalancing our investment also on Deo. I mentioned Dermacontrol, which is a global launch that we are launching everywhere. So we are not, you know, optimistic on the development of the emerging market dynamics. We'll see what happens. But clearly, we are coming with a much stronger innovation portfolio and much, I would say, much more, much better adapted launch portfolio to emerging markets. So we hope to see some good figures in the months to come.

And the next question is from Anna Westkamp of Handelsblatt. Anna, good morning. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. I have two questions regarding TESA. First of all, how dependent are you on the recovery of the automotive sector here? And second of all, are you looking into expanding into other industries like defense with TESA?

Thank you so much, Anna, for your question. So, look, automotive is a big part of the Teza business. Between automotive and electronics, they're really the pillars of what Teza has established. The nice thing about Teza is that they continue to make progress in each of the industries. in automotive as well. So while the market certainly was challenged in Europe and North America, the projects it gained, particularly in Asia Pacific, have really helped kind of balance that impact. So again, not an easy market and certainly not a huge growth driver for Taser year to date, but one that is also not a huge drag, which is very, very helpful. And yes, Taser has really invested. If you followed some of our commentary also in previous calls where they've really invested over the last few years significantly into innovation and business development and that is really to go beyond these two industries as well and and significantly drive more business in other industries thank you and the next question is from Olivia Nikolai of Goldman Sachs Olivia please go ahead

Hi, good morning, Vincent, Astrid, and Christopher. Just very two quick follow-ups. First, on Nivea, Epiceline, you obviously have it in Europe and a few other countries, but are you planning to roll this brand out across your whole geographic footprint in next year? And then secondly, on Teza, just a quick follow-up. In the context of what we just discussed about the automotive market, should we expect most of the growth of Tesla for next year to come from electronics?

Thank you. Thanks for your question. Yes, absolutely. Nivea Episilin will be launched and is launched absolutely everywhere. So obviously not yet in China because we are focusing all our energies in Tiamidol. But the objective is to launch it in most of our Nivea countries in the next six months. We have already covered Europe. We are starting now in Q4 to launch it in some emerging markets. But this is clearly a very big priority for Nivea globally. Anteza, Astrid?

Yes, thank you for your question on TESA. Look, the TESA business absolutely wants to continue to grow in electronics. As you know, a lot of the electronics business is a project business, so we need to win projects every single year, for example, also with the big device manufacturer. So absolutely, we continue to look for growth in the electronics business as well.

Thank you.

And the next question is from Misha Omanadze from BNP Paribas Exxon. Good morning, Misha. Please go ahead.

Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one would be on Nivea. So, you know, if September was so strong, it would imply quite a sluggish delivery of in July, August. Would you please be able to provide some color by categories within Nivea which were particularly weak in July, August? And my second question is on Shantakai and Coppertone. How did both brands do in Q3? Thank you.

On your question about the Nivea, yes, July, August were low, also because, obviously, we had zero launches at the time. We had also no effect on any price increase. So we did a minus single digit, I think, on Nivea, if I remember well, on July, August, compensated by the figures of September that I was just sharing. You have also to keep in mind, that's important also to mention that, that the Chinese market relaunch has changed, you know, has obviously impacted strongly the development of Nivea. If you look at the first nine months, you know, if we didn't have that, you know, this revamping of the Chinese business, Nivea will be growing plus 1.3%. So that's also something which obviously we decided to do. We were hoping at the time to have a better Nivea business, but it has obviously impacted the situation. The second question, Michel, was?

It was on...

Coppertone, the only good news on Coppertone is that we finally found our way. We clearly have tried a lot of things with Coppertone, trying to launch in face care, trying to launch in spray, trying to develop the brand in a lot of directions. If you know a little bit of the US market, we have refocused on sport. We took a very famous female rugby player. We are gaining market share on sport. It's not enough to compensate the loss of the rest of the categories. At least we will continue to support that. We'll focus all our investment on sport, which is the the legacy, the origin of the brand and try to gain market share in this category. Chantecaille, we had a very good first semester with also the launch of China which impacted the figures. Q3 was a little bit more difficult because we suffered from the slow development of the US luxury market and we are very dependent on the luxury market. And we have not yet been able to open the stores we wanted to open. They are more coming in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. So all in all, you know, we go at 7%, 6.8%, which is good, but I was hoping to do better. And we'll see really the way the Chinese business, but also the Indian market, and we are launching in India, will also complement hopefully a better U.S. business in the months to come.

Very clear. Thank you.

And then we have Tom Sykes next in line. Good morning, Tom. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Yeah, morning. Thank you very much. Just, I guess, a couple of follow-ups on questions already been asked. But in terms of the rollout or level of innovation in full year 26, excluding the sort of country rollouts of Episodine, then what's the level of that in full year 26 compared to 25? Because you obviously had theoretically a large upgrade of many products in Nivea. And how would you view that being phased H1 versus H2? And just on pricing, I don't think you've given the commentary on pricing versus volume at all at the moment. But If any of you want commentary, you can give on that. And to what degree do you need to push price to maintain gross margins, given that FX has moved from where we were previously?

On the rollout, yes, absolutely. We have a better launch plan for next year, better in two directions. First, balance between H1 and H2. I mean, one of the difficulties that we had this year was the fact that we had almost no launches on Nivea in the first semester. One of the reasons being that I didn't want to launch Nivea EpiCellin too early after the launch of Usurin EpiCellin, so it has clearly created a first semester with a very low level of innovation. Next year, we have a big plan in the first semester where clearly it's really 50-50 in terms of new launches, H1 versus H2. The second difference also, it's also a wider plan in the sense that most of the initiatives in 2025 where in face care and derma control in the end of the year we have next year some very good launches on body on deo on lip on sun care and on face care which is interesting not only the i would say the usual suspects you know the premium product epicelin anti-amino but also a very big ambition also on some more accessible offer nivea q10 nivea soft facial in brazil in order to be sure that also in face care we maintain this good value for money dimension. On pricing, I always say that the objective is clearly to have a dynamic which is more two-thirds volume, one-third price. What I find interesting in the third quarter is in fact this is a quarter which is purely driven by volumes. This is the first time because obviously the price effect was you know, in Q1 and Q2, which I find interesting because it proved that, you know, this is one of the best performance in volume we had since a lot of quarter. We are able to regain, you know, this volume growth and also to recruit new consumers. So next year will be surgical. We will not do price increase over the board. We will be surgical. We will do it only when we are obliged indeed to do it because we want to protect the gross margin. And we are also willing to be much more demanding in terms of cost of goods increase. We are challenging our suppliers. We are moving also from a high dependency on single sourcing to a much better multi-sourcing in order to make some negotiation on the cost of goods. And we'll show that we do price increase where we have to protect the gross margin and or where we are coming with an innovation or renovation where the true added value in the eyes of retailers, but also in the eyes of consumers. So the level of price increase will be strongly, dramatically below the one we had in the years before. Many thanks indeed.

And it looks like we have one follow-up question from Celine. Celine, please go ahead.

What China did in the third quarter, it seems that it was negative for Libya. But overall, if you can talk about, you know, how comfortable you feel about the reacceleration in the fourth quarter and if you could comment as well on that. Thank you.

I feel well. I feel well with China. Let me start with the absolutely obvious success. We have Eucerin, which is growing 83% in Northeast Asia, which means that we are growing 150% in China. We have the anti-pigment serum of Eucerin, which is today the number one anti-pigment serum in China. So we are beating not only the global competitors, but also local competitors. And the first double 11 figures, it's only 30% of the time, but we are growing in sellout by 83% versus last year. So pretty, pretty happy with USUIN. We have a great story. We have this unique ingredient, which is exactly what you need to succeed in China. So more to come, but an outstanding performance in 2025 and 2026. The second element which is making us optimistic is La Prairie. I mentioned the fact that we are growing in net sales by 3%, but if you look at sell-out, we are growing at 10%, and with e-commerce growing at 30%, and that's really something that we did not experience in China since a long time. So La Prairie, good dynamics, more than compensating the difficulty of Hainan, which was always small for us, I think the job which has been done by the new CEO and the team is starting to pay off and the fact that we discovered late but clearly with a great execution e-commerce is doing well. Last but not least, Nivea, this is a question. What I can tell you that when you look at the The face care business over the last quarter, we have been growing step by step. If you look at sellouts, quarter two plus 18%, quarter three plus 36%. Again, if I look at my double 11 first figures, again, 30% of the time we are growing plus 30%. I also believe that, you know, this Tiamidol story with, of course, a better price is an asset for Nivea. And again, we are also using Usurin to create some awareness on Tiamidol. So I would not, you know, open champagne, but I think when I look at the three major brands in China, we are pretty good signals and more to come in Q4, which will be extremely strong for China. Thank you.

That was the last question. This concludes our conference call. Biasdorf's next investor relations event will be the release of our full year results on March 3rd, 2026. We appreciate your interest in Biasdorf and look forward to seeing you back here again in the new year. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Curl's Call and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.