Düsseldorf (Reuters) - Beiersdorf reports rapid growth in its Nivea business after a record year in 2023 and raises its sales forecast.

Price increases and rising demand led to a significant increase in sales in the Hamburg-based company's personal care business in the first quarter. In contrast, the much smaller adhesives division suffered a setback, as the company announced on Tuesday.

"Beiersdorf has made an excellent start to 2024," said Group CEO Vincent Warnery . The manufacturer of Nivea, Eucerin and Tesa is therefore raising its sales forecast for the Consumer segment and the Group as a whole. Beiersdorf now expects organic sales growth of six to eight percent in 2024. The Hamburg-based company had previously forecast growth "in the mid-single-digit range". The operating return on sales (EBIT margin) should be slightly higher than the previous year's 13.4 percent excluding one-off effects, confirmed Beiersdorf CEO Warnery. For comparison: At the beginning of March, Düsseldorf-based competitor Henkel announced organic sales growth of between two and four percent and an adjusted operating EBIT margin of twelve to 13.5 percent. Henkel plans to present its figures for the first quarter in May.

Beiersdorf's consolidated sales rose organically - i.e. excluding possible acquisitions - by 7.3 percent to 2.6 billion euros in the first quarter. According to data from Vara Research, analysts had on average expected sales of 2.58 billion euros. The cosmetics division around the core brand Nivea achieved growth of ten percent to 2.2 billion euros. The previous problem child, the luxury brand La Prairie, also returned to growth and increased sales by one percent. The brand was able to recover in the important Chinese market in particular. Warnery expects the trend to continue throughout the year.

By contrast, Beiersdorf's second mainstay, the much smaller adhesives business around the Tesa brand, recorded a decline in sales due to sluggish business with customers from the electronics industry in North America and Asia. Organic sales shrank by 5.4 percent. However, better business is expected in the second half of the year, said CFO Astrid Hermann.

Beiersdorf's share price rose slightly in a weaker market environment.

(Report by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Sabine Wollrab. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)