Beiersdorf Ag

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Biasoft H1 Results 2026 conference call. I'm Sergen, the chorus call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a tuned A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. Operate 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.

Thank you, Zag, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first half-year 2026 conference call. I'm here with our CEO, Vincent Warnery, and our CFO, Astrid Hermann. As always, we will start with the presentation of the results. followed by a Q&A session. And with that, I would like to hand over to Vincent.

Thank you, Christopher, and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. Astrid and I will now present an overview of our financial performance in the first half of 2026 and our full year and midterm outlook. We'll also update you on the Nivea rebalancing strategy and explain the next action steps to return the brand to sustainable growth. The performance of our business in the first half year was impacted by a continued volatile market environment. Consumer sentiment and consumption were affected by geopolitical disruptions, particularly the crisis in the Middle East, as well as ongoing economic uncertainty. Despite these challenges, our derma business continued its outperformance, delivering high single-digit growth in the first half of the year. The retail disruptions that affected La Prairie in the first months of the year have mostly faded, resulting in improved performance supported by solid underlying fundamentals. Nivea, on the other hand, is still affecting our performance negatively. Our rebalancing strategy has delivered some initial positive effects as we have shifted our marketing budget and focus from premium face care across other major categories. However, this green shoots remains too isolated to drive Nivea's growth on a global scale. We have therefore initiated the next phase of the rebalancing, a decisive 18-month turnaround plan to restore Nivea's growth trajectory. Supported by the continued strengths of our derma business, the improving trajectory of La Prairie, and our turnaround plan to restore Nivea's growth, we are laying the foundations for a return to profitable growth from 2028. The challenging dynamics around Nivea continued to wade on the second quarter performance, with Nivea sales declining by 6.7% organically. Our derma business, with Usurin and Aquaphor, continued its multi-year outperformance, with 7.4% health sales growth driven by innovation and white space expansion. The healthcare business, with our brands Anzaplast and Elastoplast, grew by 6.2% organically, again driven by a strong innovation pipeline. La Prairie returned to net sales growth of 2.2% in the second quarter as the temporary disruptions in the US and travel retail in China in the first quarter faded as expected. In total, our consumer business declined by 3.3% organically in the second quarter. returned to growth in the second quarter, up 2.5% after a phasing-driven organic net sales decline of 4.3% in the first quarter. This translates into a net sales decline of 2.3% at group level. Let's now review the performance of our brands in more detail, starting with Derma and our brands Usurin and Aquaphor. Over the last five years, Our DERMA business has doubled in size and grew by 7.8% in the first half of 2026. DERMA once again significantly outperformed the market in the second quarter, delivering net sales growth of 7.4% despite a demanding comparable base of 13.3% organic growth in the second quarter of 2025. Our success is driven by two pillars, breakthrough innovations and Whitespace Expansion. Looking ahead, we will continue to build on these strengths by advancing science-based innovation and capturing additional growth opportunities across categories and markets. The success of our strategy is clearly reflected in our performance across regions. In Brazil, our Derma business delivered an impressive growth rate of 71% in the second quarter. USERIN has assumed the number three position, and the epigenetic serum has become the number one anti-age product in the dermocosmetics market. In China, we continue to deliver outstanding double-gid growth of 62% in the second quarter. This performance was driven by a focused expansion strategy, strong medical endorsement and continued innovation momentum. Eucerin has become the number one anti-pigment brand and our hero product, the Tiamidol Spotless Brightening Serum, maintained its number one position in China's derma anti-pigment serum market. In North America, our biggest derma market, our face care business in the U.S. was a clear growth driver with net sales increasing by 40% organically. Eucerin has become the most recommended brand against hyperpigmentation by American dermatologists. North America and Europe also continue to perform strongly across categories despite a high prior year comparable base. Now let's turn to Aquaphor. Over the past years, Aquaphor has consistently delivered double-digit growth in North America, driven by the strong performance of its healing ointment, baby, and lip care franchises. We are now taking the brand to the next level and unlocking a significant white space opportunity. With the launch of Body lotions and creams, the brand is entering a category that represents more than 80% of the U.S. body care market, substantially expanding its growth potential beyond ointments. This is the largest U.S. launch to date and marks an important step in unlocking additional growth opportunities for the brand beyond its traditional categories. With a new daily hydrating range, we are bringing Aquaphor's trusted dermatologic credentials The new body care range was launched in July with three leading retail partners and will be rolled out nationwide in retail stores across the U.S. until the end of the year. Let's continue with La Prairie. The disruptions that negatively affected La Prairie in the U.S. and travel retail in China in the first quarter have mostly faded. As a result, La Prairie returned to growth in the second quarter. Nelson increased by 2.2% organically, following a decline of 14.9% in the first quarter. The domestic China business remained a key growth driver for La Prairie. For the fifth consecutive quarter, China delivered high single-digit to double-digit sell-out growth. Nelson grew by 12% organically in the second quarter, with selling broadly in line with sell-out, demonstrating a healthy inventory level in the trade. and we have exciting plans for La Prairie in the second half of the year. With the launch of Swiss Pristine in September, we are introducing a more accessible entry-level price point to the brand. This will help us recruit new consumers while creating a pathway into the broader La Prairie portfolio over time. In parallel, this will allow us to selectively expand our distribution, particularly in North America, into specialty beauty retail. At a price point of between 180 Thank you very much. Our healthcare brands have now delivered three consecutive years of market share growth, further strengthening their leadership position in wound care. Growth was primarily driven by innovation. Building on the success of our second skin protection range, we recently expanded the franchise with a pressed plaster and a liquid plaster concentrate. Both innovations performed ahead of expectations and contributed strongly to net sales growth. Now let's turn to Nivea. Nivea net sales dynamics continued to be challenging in the second quarter, with net sales declining by 6.7% organically. For the first half of the year, net sales declined by 6.8%. Let me put this performance into perspective. The decline reflects both sell-in headwinds and underlying challenges with the brand itself. The sell-in headwinds include ongoing customer conflicts in Europe. Sunseason phasing, some trade destocking as well as phasing effects related to our Q4 2025 innovation calendar. While these factors had a much greater impact on shipments into the trade and consumer demand, we view this as largely temporary, even if some may remain headwind into the next quarters. Nivea's sell-out performance year-to-date has been more resilient and remains positive, a bite below our expectations. This reflects The ongoing impact of the crisis in the Middle East, as well as the weaker than expected performance of our core portfolio. To address the challenges related to our core portfolio, we initiated our rebalancing strategy in the second half of the year, which has been delivered some positive results. But as these results to date are too isolated to improve Nivea's growth trajectory on a global scale, we have initiated the next phase of our turnaround plan. Before we dive deeper into actions for the next phase, let me give you an update on the first phase of rebalancing. In the summer half of 2025, we initiated the Renivea rebalancing to restore the brand competitiveness and create a broader foundation for growth. The strategy is built on three pillars. First, portfolio rebalancing. We expanded our focus beyond premium face care and strengthened investments in body care and deodorants. This included shifting marketing resources, optimizing assortments, and improving in-store execution. Second, accessible face care. We increased our focus on more accessible face care offerings such as Nivea Facial, helping us recruit new consumers and expand our reach. Building on its success, we are now rolling out the concept in Europe as Face Plus. Third, localization within a frame. We gave key markets greater flexibility to adapt products and activations to local consumer needs while maintaining the integrity of the Nivea brand. The adaptation of Nivea Luminous for emerging markets is one example, combining localized formats and activations to improve consumer relevance and market performance. This strategy has delivered some initial positive results. Our sell-out performance has been improving on a global level and across key regions. It demonstrates our ability to return to growth as a result of rebalancing marketing investment and optimizing our assortment focus. However, while encouraging, sell-out growth remains below the market level and is not yet broad enough to restore growth sustainably across the entire brand on a global scale. To restore growth globally, we are doubling down on our actions and initiated the next phase of rebalancing, a decisive turnaround plan for the next 18 months. Our objective is clear, broaden Nivea's growth drivers and strengthen the brand's competitiveness across markets, categories, and consumer segments. So far, we have distributed investments more evenly across face care, body care, and deodorants. The next phase is about unlocking the growth opportunities created by Nivea's full portfolio across all categories. We are putting more focus on Nivea accessibility and value for money propositions as the key drivers of penetration and volume. We will also fully leverage Nivea's local relevance. This is already reflected in our innovation pipeline that will respect local specifics and existing stronger franchises. Restoring sustainable growth requires not only the right portfolio, but also strong consumer activation. We will therefore increase and sharpen our focus on consumer-facing investments even further to achieve the greatest impact on our business. Let's now look at our actions for this next phase in more detail. Nivea's strength lies in being a multi-category, multi-generation and multi-country brand. This race has always been one of Nivea's greatest competitive advantages. As part of our turnaround efforts to date, we broaden our focus beyond premium face care and strengthen investment across face care, body care, and deodorants. We are now taking the next step by unlocking the growth opportunities of our full portfolio. We are identifying opportunities beyond category boundaries by applying the right marketing spend and Broadbase Innovation. We will not be dogmatic about which categories to endorse, but also leverage strong existing franchises across regions. In Germany, for example, we cannot ignore our strong footprint in showers, and in Southern Europe, LEAP is an essential part of the portfolio. At the same time, we are responding faster to changing consumer needs and market trends through an accelerated innovation pipeline Reinforcing Nivea's accessibility remains a strategic priority. Consumers have long trusted Nivea to deliver effective skincare that combines quality, affordability and broad availability. We will continue to support our existing scale platforms across multiple price tiers and step up our efforts in the mid to lower price ranges where we see significant opportunities to grow. This approach will help us recruit new consumers, drive volume, increase our sales penetration, and strengthen Nivea relevance across income groups, life stages, and markets. We are strengthening our ability to win locally while preserving the consistency and scale advantages of a global brand. First, we are investing behind Nivea's strongest local franchises through locally relevant innovation. A good example are the line extension of Nivea Facial in Brazil, or the launch of Nivea Softshell in India, developed specifically to address local consumer preferences and market needs. Second, we are leveraging successful local concepts across markets. Following the success of Nivea Facial in Brazil, we are expanding the platform into Europe at the accessible face care line Nivea Face Plus, allowing us to benefit from proven consumer propositions and many others across regions. Third, we are accelerating our ability to respond to local trends and specific consumer demand. This includes ingredient-led propositions such as cocoa-based innovations in Africa. Taken together, these initiatives allow us to combine the strengths of a global brand with the relevance of local execution, helping us sharpen consumer relevance, broaden our growth drivers and strengthen EVA competitiveness across markets. Restoring sustainable growth requires not only the right portfolio and innovation pipeline, but also highly effective consumer-facing investment. We are, therefore, stepping up our marketing activities that drive the greatest business impact, concentrating resources on the touchpoint that most directly influence consumers where they are. In this context, we'll boost our investment by €100 million in the second half of this year, compared to the same period in previous years. Before handing over to Astrid, let me highlight that bringing Nivea back to growth will require disciplined execution and time. Over the next 18 months, we'll rigorously monitor progress and continuously sharpen our focus to maximize impact. Astrid will now give you an overview on Teza and our financial performance. Over to you, Astrid.

Thank you, Vincent. Now let us review Teza's performance for the quarter. Teza recorded organic sales growth of plus 2.5% in the second quarter and minus 0.9% in the first half year. While the electronics business declined against an exceptionally strong first half last year, the broader industry portfolio remained resilient. Excluding electronics, industry delivered solid growth and accelerated in the second quarter. The improvement in Q2 was driven by broad-based momentum across several business units. Industrial trade and converting delivered double-digit growth. Printing and packaging solutions accelerated significantly, and the electrical systems continued its strong development despite declining global car production. The automotive business also gained momentum in Q2, supported by increasing penetration in Asia and continued growth in the electric vehicle segment. Within the electronic segment, sorry, Thank you very much. Potential shortages in the availability of semiconductors may impact the second half of the year negatively, both on sales growth of the electronics business and the corresponding mixed effect on Teza's profitability. The consumer business also showed a better trend in Q2, delivering low single-digit growth. Overall, the second quarter demonstrated improving momentum across most of Teza's portfolio, helping to offset the headwinds in electronics. Now let's continue with the detailed financial results. Consumer business net sales declined to 4.113 billion euros in the first half of 2026 at an organic growth rate of minus 4.0%. Adverse foreign exchange effects resulted in lower nominal growth of minus 5.0%. EBIT declined to 632 million euros with an EBIT margin of 15.4%. The 60 basis points decline was mainly driven by gross margin pressure, partly offset by cost discipline in overhead costs. Our TESA business recorded an organic net sales decline of minus 0.9% in the same period, closing the first half with net sales of 839 million euros. Due to unfavorable foreign exchange effects, nominal sales declined by minus 2.1%. Tezas EBIT at €136 million remained below the 2025 level, mainly reflecting the weaker contribution from the electronics business, elevated input costs, and continued investments to support future growth. Looking at our consumer business across regions, while the first half-year performance across regions was negatively impacted by Nivea's softer net sales development, The underlying demand remained more resilient. In addition, the performance in North America, Western Europe, and Africa, Asia, Australia was affected by several specific factors beyond Nivea's overall net sales development. North America was negatively impacted by retailer disruptions affecting La Prairie in the first quarter, as well as Coppertone's performance. Excluding these factors, organic net sales growth in North America would have been plus 2.5%, supported primarily by the strong performance of our derma business. La Paris in North America also returned to growth in the second quarter. Western Europe was adversely affected by the disruption of travel retail in China. As you know, we record La Paris travel retail business in Western Europe today. which represented a 70 basis points headwind to growth in the first half. Beyond this, ongoing customer conflicts affecting Nivea also weighed materially on the performance in Europe. Latin America benefited from an improving Nivea performance in Brazil in the second quarter, supported by key innovations alongside a strong sun and body performance. Derma also continued to accelerate and delivered strong double digit growth across the region. Lastly, the crisis in the Middle East continues to weigh on the Africa, Asia and Australia region with 160 basis points headwind on growth. Beyond the impact from the Middle East, the performance was affected by strategic channel shifts in Malaysia and the Philippines, softer consumption and lower net sales in Indonesia and parts of Africa. Now let's take a look at the development of our consumer gross margin. Our consumer gross margin decreased by 100 basis points from 62.0% in H1 2025 to 61.0% in H1 2026. Pricing contributed moderately, adding 10 basis points. Increased costs driven by higher raw material prices and limited volume growth weighed on our gross margin. The lower volume development resulted in reduced factory utilization leading to higher unit costs and creating a headwind for gross margin. Mixed effects were flat due to a dilutive effect from the Nivea rebalancing offset by the continued outperformance of our Derma business. Lastly, unfavorable foreign exchange effects contributed minus 60 basis points. Let me conclude our financial overview by highlighting the key elements of our group income statement. Our group's net sales amounted to 4.952 billion euros in the first half of 2026, representing an organic decline of minus 3.5%. Our group gross margin decreased by 110 basis points to 58.3%. In addition to the factors outlined for the consumer business, Teza's gross margin was affected by material cost inflation, Currency fluctuations, as well as a negative mix effect due to the lower share of the electronics business. Marketing and selling expenses increased to 34.8% of sales from 34.2% in the prior year. We continued to prioritize consumer-facing investments and maintained working media spending at a stable level. As in previous years, We continue to invest in innovation with R&D expenses increasing to 3.8% of sales underlining our commitment to building the foundation for future growth. At the same time, we maintained a disciplined approach to our general and administrative costs leading to a reduction of these expenses in the first half of 2026. This development reflects our ongoing focus on cost discipline and efficiency Although part of the improvement was driven by phasing effects that are expected to normalize throughout the year. As a result, EBIT excluding special factors amounted to 768 million euros corresponding to a margin of 15.5%. Lower gross margins were partly offset by disciplined overhead cost management and an improved other operating result. Special factors amounted to 8 million euros Thank you, Astrid.

Now let us turn to our full-year and mid-term outlook. Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, we continue to expect a challenging and volatile market environment, with geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Middle East, continuing to weigh on consumer sentiment and consumption. And while we have initiated the next phase of our Nivea rebalancing strategy with a decisive turnaround plan, the measures will take some time to become fully visible. In addition to the factors affecting our top-line performance, several headwinds will further impact our EBIT margin in the full year. First, the crisis in the Middle East continues to put pressure on input costs, resulting in higher input costs across our portfolio. Second, the Nivea rebalancing creates a negative mixed effect as we strengthen the accessible core of our brand's portfolio. These effects will fade over time, and we expect the higher margin businesses Dermain and La Prairie to outgrow Nivea, supporting a more positive mixed effect in the mid-term. Third, we are deliberately stepping up our consumer-facing investments, especially at a time when Nivea's growth needs to be reunited. Supporting our brands and executing the Nivea turnaround plan remain clear priorities. We are increasing investments behind initiatives that drive long-term growth and Value Creation. Of course, we are working on various efficiency measures across the organization to mitigate these cost headwinds. This includes efficiencies in supply chain, streamlining overhead costs and reducing unprofitable parts of our portfolio. We have realized savings in recent years already and will accelerate our efforts going forward. Overall, We expect consumer EBIT margin to be around 250 base points below the 2025 level. As a result, our justice guidance for the full year 2026 is as follows. For the consumer business, we expect a low single-digit organic sales decline from previously flat to slightly growing organic sales. We'd expect an EBIT margin excluding special factors in the consumer segment of at least 11% for 2026 down from 13.6% in 2025. For TESA, we confirm our guidance of flat to slightly growing organic sales and expect an EBIT margin excluding special factors slightly below the prior level. Overall, for the group, we expect a low single-digit organic sales decline and an EBIT margin excluding special factors of at least 11.8% down from 14% in 2025. Now let us turn to our mid-term outlook. Our immediate priority is the disciplined execution of our turnaround plan for Nivea. Based on the initiatives already underway, we expect to return to net sales growth in 2027 with the stabilization of our EBIT margin. Our ambition to outperform the market in the mid-term remains intact. Starting from 2028, we expect to return to profitable growth with net sales growth above market and steady EBIT margin improvements. At the same time, we are committed to improving our cash conversion rate in line with the industry, which translates into a free cash flow of at least 50% EBITDA in the mid-term. The use of cash for inorganic growth remains a core element of our capital allocation strategy as we continue to pursue M&A opportunities to enhance our portfolio. At the same time, we have strengthened our commitment to deliver improved returns to shareholders via share buybacks and dividends. With that, we're happy to answer your questions. 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 this morning, we'll start with Jeffrey's, Molly Wilenzek. Molly, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning, Vincent, Astrid, Christopher. A couple questions from me, please. Why... Are we not using some of that $100 million investment further up the P&L? How comfortable are you that the price point you have on Nivea is the right one here? And secondly, just on Coppertone, I noted that you talked about North America Performance X retailer disruption for La Prairie and Coppertone. I understand why you'd adjust for La Prairie disruption, given that it was a one-off Y Coppertone Are you thinking about doing something different with that brand? Thank you.

Thank you, Molly, for your questions. I will take both of them. On EVI, you have to clearly have in mind that we are We have two products which are more expensive, which are Luminous and Epicillin. The majority of our products are between 2 and 10 euros, so we don't see any need to reduce those prices. What we believe is the right thing to do is to focus on them, to come with new news on those products, to come also with new proposals. The FacePlus launch, for example, is exactly in this range of products. So we believe that our mission is to launch a new product and to support them with the best consumer-facing investment, which means in the majority of cases, media will increase our investment behind those products, but also in store activity, everything which is allowing consumers to get back to Nivea and to get back to this affordable offer of Nivea. On Coppertone, we are clearly disappointed by the results. We have been trying over the last years to regain growth. It's true that the brand had been harmed by multiple changes over the years until we bought it. The mission we have given to the team is to focus on sport, and we have an extremely successful partnership with a rugby woman, Ilona Meyer, so we are doing well in sport. And the second mission we gave to the team is to improve productivity. As you might remember, we moved the production to Mexico, so we are on the verge of being profitable with the brand, which is, I think, Not the most exciting mission we were hoping to give to the brand, but at least, you know, it allows us to focus on the other brands and you see the launch of Aquaphor, which is for me, for us, extremely promising.

Thank you. And the next question... Thanks, Molly. The next question is from Warren Ackerman of Barclays. Warren, good morning. Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning, Vincent, Astrid, Chris. It's Warren here at Barclays. So the first one, Vincent, is a bit of a step back. When you became CEO, Nivea had a very good 2023 and 2024, but 2025 and 2026 have been poor, and we're now talking about another 18-month transition. So effectively, it's three to four years. So you're doing the pivots. But looking back, I'm still not clear how Beisdorf misread the market trends so much. And I guess the question we're getting is, how can investors... Be confident that your diagnosis is the right one, the amount of money is the right amount, and the time frame is right. Is there any risk that you think that Nivea issues go deeper and it's just lost relevance to consumers, and that's what retailers are seeing and delisting you? And then the second one is more on the margins for Astrid. Can you talk a little bit about the phasing of margins into 2027, Astrid, between first half and second half? Thank you.

Your first question is absolutely fair and I'm happy to answer that. If we look a little bit at the history, before becoming CEO, I was in charge of the Derma business. And as you remember, this was a small business. Absolutely under focus and I took TIAMIDOL as the extraordinary opportunity to transform the business and it is today a business which is flying and we have good hopes also with Aquaforce so this investment into a technology was clearly paying off on their mind. The bet on IVEA that we took in 2021 was to say okay we have this TIAMIDOL opportunity We have also lost over the years what was making Nivea so unique. We were the first face care brand in the world. We were the first brand in history. We thought that it was an opportunity to focus on Tiamidol, to get back to face care, to propose also something which was more premium. And we must admit it worked. It worked because at the same time we grew and Nivea reached a level that it never reached in history. without losing ground on the other franchisees. So we were lucky, I would say, until 2024. Even the last quarter of 2024 was extremely good and growing double digit because we were growing the premium face category without impacting the other categories. From 2025, things change. Not only some of our competitors were much better, more agile, and the local brand, the indie brand, the Korean brands, But also, you know, we clearly see that this overinvestment on premium face care was damaging, in a way, the value for money positioning of Nivea, the fact that we have to be accessible. And this is what we started to change. And I think we're pretty quick at changing that. You know, we already, I think, share the first rebalancing message in May. We were able to shift the media investment, that was the first thing we could do, into more affordable categories and you could see the sell-out, the fact that we are gaining, we are growing in sell-out in something which is pretty positive. So I believe that now, after those months where we test and learn, where we look a little bit how this rebalancing could work without additional launches, We feel more confident that now that we can come with new launches, and I think FacePlus for me is the best example, we can not only go back to what has made the strengths of Nivea over the century, but also keeping this balance between being able to offer affordable products, but also to be able to bring skincare technology to consumers with our premium offers. That's the bet we are making on. We feel confident. We will never be overconfident. We have still a lot of work to do. And you see that even if we grow and sell out, we are not yet gaining market share. But what we have been looking at over the last six months is making us believe that we have found the right way. We just have to be absolutely brutal in the way we support it. and the decision to impact the EBIT by increasing dramatically the media investment. So this is where we are. No overconfidence, no underconfidence, but the feeling that we have learned also from our mistakes and we have learned also from the last six months and we feel that we have found a way to get back to growth, to get back to a sustainable growth with Nivea.

Warren, your question related to 2027 margins and I'm assuming you're referring to how could we keep margins for the full year stable when the back half margins for this year are obviously quite a bit lower. You know, one, I would like to remind you that we have this regularly every year that our first half margins are substantially higher than the back half. That is also significantly linked to how our business works. We have a very Profitable European business and big sun care business. And that's really always impacting significantly the first half of the year. And we don't see that changing in the new year. Additionally, we are expecting to be phasing our spend quite a bit different next year. We are now to really accelerate the momentum, putting significantly more money in the back half and are looking to face that quite differently. and beyond that we do see our you know mix having a positive impact in 2027. We continue to see a good picture for our derma business and that's obviously very much helping our margin and then we do hope it's probably early hopes but we do hope for continued stabilization and growth of our luxury business which obviously also has a quite positive impact when it then comes. So that's a bit why we do feel we can hold our margins next year at the level of this year, obviously a quite low level. Thank you.

Just quickly to clarify Astrid on that, you said MIX will be positive. If you're shifting down from facial care and you're taking pricing down, how is MIX going to be positive? And then secondly on the marketing spend, 100 million in the second half. Should we expect that's a one-time increase or are you expecting to multiply that by two for 2027? Just trying to understand if it's a kind of one-timer or how we think about the marketing spend next year.

Warren, we're already bringing down the mix for Nivea this year given that we're really rebalancing already into those other, you know, let's say price points and categories. So that's already creating a base that will be easier to compare to in 2027. So we're not expecting Nivea in the end to significantly drop further in 2027. Given again, the other brands growth, then it should help us to get to a more positive mixed picture. so that on that question sorry the second part of your question just the marketing the media so no we are not expecting to double that for the year this is what I was saying that we are expecting to more even that out of the year we will obviously also look to grow in the year to come with that also deliver a stronger marketing budget from that alone

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Warren. And the next one is JP Morgan, Celine Panuzzi. Good morning, Celine. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Excellent. Thank you so much for the question. So two questions. So a bit coming back on the fundamental question, Vincent. So you've done your due diligence, you've decided that you need more innovation, more affordability across the portfolio. I think if we think about Nivea over maybe the last 15 years, it's been problematic. And the question is, and that's why you appointed a head of Nivea when you became a CEO, the relevance of the brand changes. and how you managed to rejuvenate it. So my question is, when you look at your digital capabilities, marketing capabilities, innovation, and you benchmark that versus your peers, how confident are you that you have done enough in terms of transforming those key skills in the organization to be relevant now with the consumer first? Second question, on Q2, can you tell us what impact of Suncare has been on the Q2 like for like for consumer and I would like to understand if I think about the guidance down the single digit for the year still would imply quite a better performance in the second half of the year and I think you know you probably have some benefit from Suncare and Q2 so what's going to be better in the second half and my region maybe if you can help us Thank you Celine. On your question about the due diligence, and you are absolutely using the right word, I think what we are absolutely convinced of is that we are

Clearly the best in terms of R&D, skin care, you know, and then if you think about Tiamidol, if you think about Apicillin, if you think also, we'll talk about that next quarter, about the launch of S-Biomedics on acne, we have clearly demonstrated that Biasoft is back to being, you know, the leading company in skin care research and development. But that doesn't make everything. And clearly, you're absolutely right. This is obviously the peak of the pyramid. They are the best things we can propose to consumers. But the world of innovation, in the world of beauty, it goes beyond just coming with the best molecules. And here I would say I think we are pretty good in terms of innovation, the way the innovation we are proposing. We are not good enough in the rhythm, the fact, the time to market between the ideation and the market launch. That is something we are working on in order to improve that dramatically. We are becoming much more pragmatic. For example, we are not hesitating at all, you know, using third party manufacturers when there is a trend coming and we want to seize it. You might have seen, you know, we'll come back to Sun, but the launch of the Nivea Sun Stick is something we just bought in Korea from the manufacturers in Korea. We put the stamp Nivea, we put a nice Korean flag, and this is our best-selling SKU in Suncare this year. So we are much more pragmatic. We are also looking at ways also to accelerate, you know, all the process. So we are not good enough, we are not bad, but we can improve that. On digital capabilities, frankly, I think we are pretty good. I think we've been accelerating our expertise, first in e-commerce, second in digital marketing, then in influencer marketing, at an extremely high rhythm. We are not the first one, clearly not, but we are not the last one. And we've been able to develop, to recruit a lot of profiles, a lot of experts. Today, you know, we are spending 70% of our media investment in digital marketing. 30% of that is with influencer and we have learned to manage influencer. So I think we are pretty good. We have also a global partnership with publicis. So we are getting, you know, to being pretty good. So some work to do on the way we drive innovation, but I think on digital, we are okay. We can do even better, but we are not bad. I will answer on sun care and then Astrid will come back on the more bigger question on Q2. On sun care, we are doing well. The good thing, we were a bit worried last month because the sun season started late. And you have all seen that, you know, there was really some rain, you know, until May. So clearly, instead of starting in May, starting rather starting in June. We are very happy with the results of June. I mean, to give you a perspective, the month of June in Céline for Suncare is the best ever in our history. So and it's interesting because June is just customers buying because they have sold out the product. We are also gaining market share in June. We are doing a very good month in July. We already have some good figures from Germany. So I think we are on the verge of doing a pretty good season on Suncare and Eucerin is also doing extremely well.

It was on Suncare.

Céline, your question about the full Q2?

My question was then, like Sun had clearly an impact, X-Sun probably the underlying would not have improved that much. So I want to understand H2, you implied to be quite a step up versus H1. What's going to change?

On Suncare?

No, at the group, at consumer. This is what I'm saying.

No, I mean H2, simply we are coming with new products. You know, what we have been doing on the rebalancing in EVR until now is just a Changing the way we're spending media investment. We could not overnight develop new products. We are coming with new products in the second semester. We are coming with big global initiatives. I mentioned the launch of FacePlus, which is inspired by Facial. We are coming with a few renovations. So clearly on EVR, we have not only more media, but we have also more opportunities to convince consumers to try the brand. And all our initiatives being into this price range below 15 euros. but we have also other big things. We have the launch of Aquaphor on Derma and this is as we said the biggest launch ever we've done in the US and we have a fantastic support from retailers and you see that already you can find the product at Walmart, Amazon and Target. We are also coming with a very strong pipeline on Usuin. The pipeline this year was much more towards the second semester. We are also coming with launch of Swiss Pristin in La Prairie. It's not only interesting as it allows us to recruit new consumers, but also we can go back to chains like Sephora where we were not present before because we were too expensive. So we have a pretty good portfolio of launches in the second semester together, as I said, with plus 100 million consumer-facing investments. That makes us, you know, pretty reasonably confident for the second semester.

And the next question is from Guillaume Demas of UBS. Good morning, Guillaume. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Christopher. Good morning, Vincent and Astrid. Two questions for me as well. The first one, Vincent, it's on the changes you've made to the strategy. I mean, do you think the challenges that you've been facing in the last, let's call it a couple of years, were mostly down to media span, its allocation, and maybe the pace of innovation? Or do you actually see a need for a proper adjustment to your operating model? And then here I would be, you know, thinking, you know, level of decentralization, maybe some changes in personnel or, you know, changing the incentive structure for Biasdorf's employee. and also maybe some changes to your portfolio with some brands like Coppertone or some country category combinations that have been a consistent drag, distraction and that you could potentially divest or discontinue. So apologies for the long question here, but what I'm getting to is do you think it's only a Nivea brand issue or do you think it's wider than that? and therefore would require a proper comprehensive restructuring program to try and change or at least adapt Basdorff's culture, execution and portfolio. And then my second question, it's more in Eastern Europe. We've seen four consecutive quarters of organic sales growth decline. It's deteriorating, in fact, quarter after quarter. So here, just wondering what's driving this weakness And looking ahead, how quickly do you think you can fix the various issues in the region and return to what we've been more used to in the past, which is significant organic sales growth? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Guillaume. Thank you for this question. I think on your first question, I think we clearly made a bet. We made a bet, as I said, which was to focus on premium face care in a way to transform this brand, which was more personal care slash body care, into a full skincare brand. Again, it worked until 2024. Then we clearly could not continue overspending at the expense of other categories. So we are clearly changing the strategy, moving into these lines which are more affordable, Thank you very much. I mean, we were nobody in 2017. We were doing 500 million euros of sales with Eucerin. And now we are one of the top leaders and we are growing, gaining market share, invading countries like Brazil, China, and the US, which are not easy ones. So we are also able as a company, when we have the right strategy, to go bold and to be successful. The big difference with Nivea is that Nivea historically is local, has been always managed locally and this is where you are absolutely right. One of the changes we are doing is we are more open to decentralization, to freedom in the frame. We are not coming back to the time where everybody could do everything. There were advertising campaigns for every product in every country. but we are saying yes it makes sense facial in brazil is something which is special has to be supported the way brazil should support it in india this is different so we are clearly pushing incentivizing our people in the countries to be bolder to be more daring to make mistakes also and not to expect everything to come from from from hamburg so that's what we are doing right now it's a change of mindset it's also a bit contradictory to what i've been saying over the last years But, I mean, we have to accept the reality and I hope to see some changes. Again, I think the launch of Facepress is a great opportunity to demonstrate this new mindset. On your question about Eastern Europe, you have a mix of two issues. Historically, Eastern Europe is a personal care business for us. We sell very small skincare business. So, obviously, the big prioritization not only on skincare but also on face care was not done to support Eastern Europe. So, clearly, we have changed that. That's the first thing. The second thing also, this is a market where, particularly Poland, 100% of the growth is coming from Korean brands. So here clearly, we are struggling like all our competitors because we are not a Korean brand. So what we have been developing together with our retailers is to come with a much more tailor-made strategy. We are, for example, there is one retailer which owns 50% of skincare category. He will have the exclusivity of all our launches. That's the kind of thing we are doing. What we have also to acknowledge is that USRIN is also doing extremely well. That's also the good news. We have USRIN growing double-digit. We are gaining market share. We are also launching a new country. So we have this Nivea struggling, but we have to improve, and we have USRIN doing extremely well. Last but not least, be aware also that in the figures of Eastern Europe, you have also CIS, you have the Russian... Thank you for watching.

Thank you very much. And just to follow up, so no need to streamline your portfolio. You're happy with your current portfolio and country category combination. No, we do.

No, you're right. You're right. So I'll give you an example. In China, we are extremely successful with Nivea, U3, La Prairie, and Chantecaille. We decided to divest Maestro. We saw that Maestro, being in the styling category, was not making sense. There are things we are looking at. It's not so much devising because, as you know, we have a pretty small portfolio. It's more taking the decision to stop investing on a specific category when it's proven not successful. Also, choices we made in the past. We decided not to launch Nivea Epithelin in Latin America because we thought that was making no sense to come with such an expensive product. in markets where clearly you have a price limit which is more around 10 euros than 20 euros. That's the kind of thing we are doing, but we'll continue to do that. We are looking at each and every opportunity to get rid of non-successful business, non-profitable business, and that's something we're going to do even more in the months to come. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Guillaume. Then the next question is from Jeremy Fialco from HSBC. Jeremy, please go ahead.

Hi there, a couple of questions from me. So I know this came up on the Q1 call as well, but I think the sell-in, sell-out dynamics need to be explored a little bit more. But I guess the reality is that had you reported Nivea growth slightly positive in line with what you say your sell-out is, then we wouldn't be having quite these sorts of discussions. So I think we need to understand why is there this big gap and why does it persist and when you see the sell-in and sell-out actually being aligned. And then the second thing which links into that are the retailer disputes. And from my perspective, this seems to be one of the biggest, most impactful, longest lasting customer disputes that I can remember. So could you perhaps give us a bit more clarity on when you think these are actually going to end and then would there be any sort of a restock or kind of re-piping once you get the disputes resolved given that presumably the retailers will actually have quite low inventories of your products by now and also finally on that point have you lost any shelf space as a result of the disputes?

Thanks. Your first question about the gap between the sell-in and the sell-out, I think there are a few elements, and one of them is one you just mentioned, the retailer dispute. If I want to simplify a little bit the calculation, 30% of the gap between sell-in and sell-out is due to the issue with retailer conflicts. and I will come back to that. It's partly true for Europe because we were facing retailers we wanted to have deflation and we did not accept that so we have been discussing a lot with them and the good news as of today I think we have a deal with customers covering 92% of the business in Europe so we are close to the end and we are not expecting any further disruptions. There was no big you know Practices, you know, we were able to sell our products, of course, with very low stock, so we are not expecting restocking. We will also be careful with that. We want clearly to finish 2026 with a healthy situation in terms of stock. So we are back to normal. I mean, the sun care season was a good one. We have the launches coming. But no, no, don't expect any strong restocking. Business as usual, just healthy stocking, and that's the way it's going to work. So I said 40% is the conflict. 50% is clearly the stocking and the ENO and sun phasing. I mean, as you know very well, in Q4, we clearly invested a lot in terms of marketing spending, but also in terms of in-store activity on the launch of Dermacontrol Dior, the launch of Epicillin, and we have to digest the stocks. You know, this is why in 2026, We are more, you know, we didn't come with big initiatives in the first quarter and the second quarter. We just, you know, digested all the products we have been putting on shelf. We are happy with Epicillin. Epicillin is the number two anti-age, you know, serum in Europe. We are doing okay. Dermacontrol is under expectations, but with the 1% market share, that's okay also. But clearly, what we had quantified in the selling in the first quarter was much bigger than that. And then you have 20%, I said 30% conflicts, 50% destocking Indo and sun-facing. 20%, there are some decisions we took in some countries. We are changing the route to market in Malaysia and Philippines, so these kind of small things. and it makes a difference between the sell-in and the sell-out. The good news, as I said, the sell-out is growing every month. We are growing globally, in Europe, in emerging markets. So that's also the reason why we feel that now that we are coming with the next launches, with the right launches, we should accelerate this dynamic and not only increase sell-out, but also get back to gaining market share on EVR.

And Sadiq, just the final thought, when do you think your sell-in and your sell-out would be broadly aligned?

I hope by the end of the year we should be in this situation.

Thanks very much.

The next question is from Olivier Nicolai of Goldman Sachs. Olivier, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning, Vincent, Astrid, and Chris. Two questions, please. First, you're stepping up investment on Nivea, and you recited the group margins for consumer. First, will you still be able to invest as much as you want in Eucerin, which is growing faster and has a stronger gross margin? And then secondly, should the answer be to acquire actually more brands sold at different price points and dilute the group reliance on Nivea, which is already a very large brand compared to BioStove? And then just to follow up on the buyback, looking at the rates of share buyback so far, At this pace, you're only going to reach half of the program. I was just wondering if there was any technical aspect here that we are not aware and if we should expect an acceleration in the buyback. Thank you.

Thank you, Oliver. I will take the first two questions and Astrid will talk about Share-by-Buy. Yes, we are absolutely well-founded on Usurin and Aquaphor. This is clearly something also we have increased versus our initial plan. We have not only the launch of Aquaphor Body, which is extremely important for us in the U.S., but we have also a big launch plan on Usurin. So we have absolutely the money we need to accelerate the growth, and we are pretty optimistic on both Usurin and Aquaphor. On your second question, absolutely, absolutely we need to acquire new brands. Obviously, I would prefer them to come rather late than soon because I think I want absolutely the 22,000 employees of Byersdorf to focus on the turnaround of Nivea and the growth of Usuin and La Prairie. But yes, we need absolutely to increase the number of brands we have in the portfolio. I'm not sure this is in the category of accessible skincare. We have the number one brand in the world. I think we just have to do better work with Nivea. So this is perhaps more into categories which are more into luxury and derma where we have an extremely limited portfolio. But clearly we need to increase the portfolio. We need to be less dependent on Nivea and that's something we're going to look at. But again, big priority, big focus for everybody, turnaround Nivea. Astrid?

On your third question related to the share buyback, so yes, we have started the program. It's happening, and there is not a decision to do less than what we've committed, which is the $750 million over, let's say, the two-year, 18-month period. So there's still commitment to that.

Thank you. And then we'll have Tilly Eno from Morgan Stanley. Tilly, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just one on emerging markets. We've mentioned sellouts still running below the market in Nivea. You've obviously mentioned in Eastern Europe the impact of Korean brands being very competitive there. In your other emerging markets like LATAM, Southeast Asia, who do you think you are predominantly losing share to? Where's that main pressure coming from? Thanks very much.

Like everywhere, we have clearly the development of local brands. It could be local, coming with just one ingredient and a nice support from an influencer, but you have also Korean brands everywhere. In Latam and ASEAN, you have also the good work done by our competitor Unilever which is clearly back in the market with their brands and they are bringing a new incentive to be stronger, to be bolder, to be also more creative. But overall, if I look at ASEAN, I'm pretty happy with the performance of our brands. The change on Luminous was a game changer. We have been trying since years to establish Luminous as taking the European product. And the moment when we came with Luminous Glow, with the new Galinix, like a sachet, like a gel, we are market leader. So that's something which is not only true for Thailand, but it's true for the rest of ASEAN. And we have also Yusuin, which is flying. It was always very strong in Thailand, but we are extremely happy with the results in Malaysia. So overall, ASEAN is good. On LATAM, we have a Different story, we have Eucerin which is flying, I mean you saw the results of Eucerin when I took over the brand 7 years ago it was number 18, we are number 3 today and we are doubling the cells this quarter and clearly being number 1 anti-amidon and epicillin. We are struggling more on IVR with some good reasons on body, we have fascial doing well, we are struggling on deodorants. and the rest of the countries being pretty good, also Mexico, Chile. So all in all, you know, very good performance of Derma and improving on Nivea. The thing which is important, you know, also to know is that historically those markets are also much more body and deo market than face care. So obviously the moment when we started to change dynamics Thank you.

Thank you. That was the last question.

This concludes our conference call.

Biasdorf's next investor relations event will be the release of our third quarter sales performance on October 27th, 2026. We appreciate your interest in Biasdorf and look forward to seeing you back here again in the fall. Thank you very much.