Growth in a challenging market environment

Despite a still difficult market environment, especially in Europe, the Consumer Business Segment achieved 2.7% organic sales growth in the first quarter of 2021, taking sales to €1.5 billion. The upward trend was driven by the EUCERIN and AQUAPHOR dermatological brands as well as the exclusive skin care from LA PRAIRIE. In online business, sales were up by more than 70% in the first three months of the year compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

In the first quarter of 2021, the NIVEA core brand achieved a turnaround from the same period of the previous year, with organic sales growth of 0.5%. While the pandemic continued to hit sales of sun and lip care products, there was greater demand for face and body care items. NIVEA also reaffirmed its strong position in the emerging markets, where it gained further market share.

The EUCERIN and AQUAPHOR dermatological brands continued the previous year's sales success story, achieving double-digit organic growth again of 12.1% from January to March versus an already strong prior-year quarter. Substantial sales increases were recorded especially in the United States and Latin America. The trend in market shares showed a similar picture. EUCERIN and AQUAPHOR further enhanced their leading market positions and gained additional shares of the European and North American markets in particular.

LA PRAIRIE, which provides exclusive skin care, remained the brand most heavily affected by the coronavirus travel restrictions. Almost a quarter of all doors remained closed at the end of the first quarter, the majority in LA PRAIRIE's important travel retail business. Nevertheless, sales were up 17.0% in the first three months of the year. This was due to significant growth in Asia, led by domestic travel in China. A further driver was the targeted increase in recognition by launching LA PRAIRIE on the Chinese retail platform Tmall at the beginning of the year.