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.