Nivea sales fall 4.9% and pull Beiersdorf group sales down 1.3%

Beiersdorf's third quarter of 2026 produced group net sales of €2.4bn, down 1.3% from a year earlier. The drag came from its hero skin care brand Nivea, whose sales fell 4.9% over the period as temporary sell-in headwinds and trade destocking took hold.

Across the first nine months of the year, group net sales reached €7.3bn, an organic decline of 2.8%. The one bright spot was the derma category, where Eucerin and Aquaphor recorded double-digit organic growth of 10.6% and partially offset the losses elsewhere.

Beiersdorf expects the factors weighing on Nivea to fade gradually before the year is out. Chief executive Vincent Warnery, speaking on the investor call for the results on 27 October 2026, described the shift toward premium products as a complicated and interesting phenomenon.

Warnery framed the problem as a split between channels. In the mass market, he said, consumers want value for money proposals, which is why Nivea has to fight and maintain. In drugstores, pharmacies and department stores, premium skin care backed by strong scientific efficacy is developing.

Eucerin is the brand Warnery pointed to there. He said it has become a strong derma name thanks to its research and development expertise, and can sell at a premium price. Beiersdorf had tried to take Nivea upmarket with its Luminous face care line, with partial success.

The strategy for Nivea

The Luminous push into premium face care came at the expense of Nivea's other categories, according to Warnery. Going forward, the company will manage two price propositions side by side: Nivea positioned clearly as value for money, La Prairie clearly as premium skin care.

The tools are already there, Warnery argued, to develop the equity of the brands strongly enough to support premium prices. To restore sustainable growth at Nivea, Beiersdorf is pressing on with the second phase of rebalancing under a comprehensive turnaround plan announced at the half-year results.

The plan centres on unlocking broad-based innovation across every category, reinforcing Nivea's value-for-money proposition, and leaning on local relevance with a stronger focus on local insights and proven regional franchises. Beiersdorf describes several of its key initiatives as already underway.

One of them is FACE+, which adapts a face care concept successful in emerging markets to European consumer needs. Warnery said he is extremely happy with its success, and that taking market share from private labels is something Nivea did not manage in the past.

A second initiative is a five-year partnership between Nivea Sun and the Tour de France cycling competition, starting in 2027. Beiersdorf describes it as part of stepped-up, high-impact consumer-facing investment behind the brand.

Warnery also acknowledged that Nivea has not been built the same way in every country: in some markets it is more a body care and deodorant brand, in others clearly stronger in face care. There is no single Nivea identity across the world, he said, and the company respects that.

The cost of war

Chief financial officer Astrid Hermann gave an update on the Middle East war, which she said had caused quite a bit of headache to teams, particularly in the supply chain. The company, she said, has found ways around the problems.

Hermann said Beiersdorf is not seeing significant disruption to its supply chains. The most immediate impact has been higher logistics costs. An oil price above US$100 for a longer period, however, could put significant upward pressure on costs, though so far her teams have managed it well.

On the war in Ukraine and Beiersdorf's continued presence in Russia, Warnery was blunt: the company stayed to protect the brand, and has been in Russia since 1906. Had it left, he said, somebody else could have produced Nivea without the group.

We are there to protect the brand and to pay the salaries of our employees, Warnery said: nothing more, nothing less. Beiersdorf did not give a Russia sales figure in this update, and the call did not set out terms for any change in that position.

Nivea's recovery hinges on execution of the turnaround plan, with FACE+ and the Tour de France tie-up as early proof points. Beiersdorf has said the sell-in headwinds and destocking are temporary, and it expects them to gradually fade by the end of 2026.

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Image: Beiersdorf