Beauty report season： China ChengShiseido’s largest market, and Leponi was ＂dragged down＂ by purchasing.

In August, international beauty companies ushered in the 2023 mid-year season. L ‘Oré al Group topped the list with a revenue of over 20.5 billion euros, Shiseido emphasized the importance of China market in its financial report, Kao Group sought new opportunities in the high-end skin care products market in China … Although its performance generally rose, compared with three years ago, each beauty group had different growth rates and faced different difficulties.

The four major beauty Japanese companies collectively "bet", and the China market has become a strong growth driver

On August 8th, Shiseido Group announced its performance report for the first half of 2023 as of June 30th. During the period, the group’s net sales were 494.189 billion yen (about 24.9 billion yuan), a slight increase of 0.2% compared with the same period of last year, and its operating profit increased by 19.7% to 13.632 billion yen (about 680 million yuan). Beijing News Shell Finance reporter noted that the China market is becoming a strong growth driver of Shiseido Group.

When combing Shiseido’s performance in recent years, the reporter found that the China market had surpassed Japan to become the largest market of the group in 2022, but it declined slightly in the first quarter of this year. In the first half of 2023, China market once again became the market with the largest contribution to Shiseido’s revenue. During the period, the net sales in China market increased by 12.8% year-on-year to 130.6 billion yen (about RMB 6.54 billion), accounting for 26.4% of the Group’s total revenue, and the Japanese market accounted for 25.3%, ranking second. In terms of core operating profit, the China market ranked first with a score of 7.5 billion yen (about 380 million yuan), while the Japanese market was 4 billion yen (about 200 million yuan).

During the reporting period, with the help of "618" promotion activities, the group’s e-commerce channels increased by more than 20%. Among them, Shiseido’s namesake brand performed remarkably, and the sales of Clé de Peau Beauté in China market increased by more than 40%.

In addition to Shiseido, Japanese beauty companies that take China as their primary market also have POLA Orbis, the parent company of Pola. In the first six months of this year, the group’s net sales were 85.836 billion yen (about 4.29 billion yuan), up 9% year-on-year; Operating income increased by 82.3% year-on-year to 8.966 billion yen (about 450 million yuan). According to the financial report, during the period, the net sales of Polaroid’s beauty business reached 83.529 billion yen (about RMB 4.18 billion), a year-on-year increase of 9.3%; Operating income was 8.713 billion yen (about 440 million yuan), up 66.1% year-on-year. The growth of this business is mainly driven by the main brands Polaroid and ORBIS.

It is reported that Polaroid’s net sales in the first half of this year reached 49.763 billion yen (about 2.5 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 10.4%. Among them, the brand’s revenue in China market increased by nearly 20%. According to the group, at present, Polaroid has taken China as its main market, and is constantly striving to expand its customer contact points.

It is noteworthy that Kose and KAO also recently announced their first-half results, and both have the momentum of "long-term betting on the China market".

During the financial reporting period, Kose Group’s net sales increased by 10.5% year-on-year to 144.2 billion yen (about RMB 7.22 billion), and its operating profit increased by 44.5% year-on-year to 10.4 billion yen (about RMB 520 million). Beijing News Shell Finance reporter noted that although the Asian market is the only overseas market where the group’s revenue has declined, the China market still becomes the largest market of Kose e-commerce channel with 14% revenue.

Kose Group expects that the China market will lead the Group’s performance growth in 2023 with a revenue increase of 10%. In addition, it is planned to strengthen the promotion of Cosme Decorte)AQ series in China, and to open new offline department stores and flagship stores to strengthen the high-end products of Cosme Decorte.

At the same time, Kao Group is also seeking opportunities in the high-end beauty market in China.

In the first half of this year, the net sales of Kao Group was 738.5 billion yen (about RMB 36.992 billion), up 0.6% year-on-year; Operating profit was 2.5 billion yen (about 126 million yuan), down 51.7% year-on-year.

The financial report shows that Kao has six major businesses. Among them, the net sales of cosmetics business decreased by 0.2% compared with the same period of last year to 115.8 billion yen (about 5.819 billion yuan); The operating profit loss was 2.5 billion yen (about 126 million yuan). According to the financial report, during the period, the sales of this business in Japan increased by 2.5% to 75.5 billion yen (about RMB 3.793 billion), while the sales in Asia decreased by 10% to 26.8 billion yen (about RMB 1.337 billion).

Kao Group said, "Although China’s market revenue is lower than that of the same period last year, it is still in the recovery stage, but two brands, Freeplus and Curel, have achieved strong growth performance. The former was completely sold out after the rebranding, while the latter increased its revenue by 30% during the’ 618′ period. "

In addition, the group’s senior executive director, Yosuke Maezawa, and its executive director, Yutai Murakami, recently publicly stated that Kao Group’s advantages in the China market are Fulifang Si and Kerun, and for these two brands, the group chose to build a factory in China. "We will focus on the younger generation of consumers in China and grasp the local market changes in product manufacturing." SENSAI, a high-end skin care brand under Kao Group, is expected to open a physical flagship store in Shanghai this year and enter the high-end beauty market in China.

China has become L ‘Oré al’s second largest market in the world, and Estee Lauder called "China as the growth driver".

Compared with Japanese companies, the semi-annual reports of European and American beauty companies came earlier. In July this year, L ‘Oré al Group took the lead in releasing the results for the first six months. During the period, the group achieved a total revenue of 20.57 billion euros (about 161.99 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 13.3%. Regionally, during the period, the Group achieved growth in all regions. Among them, the China market recovered strongly in the second quarter, with a net sales growth rate of 7% in the first half of the year. The North Asia market with China as its regional headquarters grew by 3.9% in the first half of the year. It is not difficult to see that China, as the second largest market of L ‘Oré al in the world, is very important for its development.

In the analyst conference call after the announcement of the financial report, Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L ‘Oré al Group, listed China as one of the "five major growth contributors". He mentioned that the sales generated by China consumers at home and abroad accounted for about 23% of the Group’s sales, with an increase of 10%, which was ahead of the market average.

L ‘Oré al’s "old rival" Estee Lauder also recently announced the fourth quarter and full-year results of fiscal year 2023. In the whole fiscal year ending June 30, the group’s net sales reached 15.91 billion US dollars (about 115.9 billion yuan); The net profit was $1.01 billion (about RMB 7.4 billion). Among them, the net sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 4%, with an increase of 36% in the fourth quarter. At the performance briefing, the group highlighted that most markets, led by Chinese mainland and Hongkong, have achieved double-digit growth.

The group also said that Chinese mainland’s e-commerce business achieved excellent performance every month in the fourth quarter, achieving organic growth of over 30%, and its market share in high-end beauty products increased by 2 percentage points. Estee Lauder believes that in the future, Chinese mainland and tourism retail business will remain the main driving force for the company’s long-term profit growth.

The performance of luxury beauty brands has suffered from "Waterloo", which is caused by purchasing?

With the increasing number of tourists around the world, beauty groups have focused on tourism retail business. However, Beiersdorf Group seems to have encountered "trouble" in this business.

In the first half of this year, the net sales of Beiersdorf Group increased by 12.3% year-on-year to 4.936 billion euros (about 38.6 billion yuan). Specifically, during the reporting period, the sales of the group’s consumer goods business unit increased organically by 14.9%, and all skin care products achieved double-digit growth, among which the sales of the core brand Nivea increased organically by 18.4% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that the beauty brand Leponi, which belongs to the luxury goods business of Beiersdorf, suffered a performance "Waterloo". During the reporting period, the brand’s net sales decreased by 9.9% year-on-year to 294 million euros (about 2.3 billion yuan). Beiersdorf said that the main reason for the decline in performance was that Daigou had caused great damage to the Asia-Pacific tourism retail market.

In fact, many beauty and luxury goods groups mentioned the keyword "purchasing" in their financial reports. Some enterprises have an immediate impact of slowing performance after cracking down on purchasing, and at the same time, they are willing to give up short-term interests to protect the long-term value of the brand.

For example, L ‘Oré al Group said in a conference call after the release of the semi-annual report in 2023 that the slowdown related to purchasing in major markets in South Korea and China and Hainan put pressure on L ‘Oré al Group’s tourism retail performance in the first half of the year. Ye Hongmu expressed his measures and determination to maintain the China market. He said, "Our first task is to ensure the rights and interests of our brand and the China market. Protecting brand equity is a major reason for L ‘Oré al’s increasing market share in China. "

The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter learned that L ‘Oré al Group has been reducing the price difference between other retail stores in China and those in Hainan by increasing the price of duty-free shops in Hainan, so as to avoid excessive discounts or unreasonable prices in the tourism retail business. Based on this concept, the group has set up a working department named CCCT to ensure that the price and promotion level of tourism retail will not damage its daily profit in China market.

In addition, at the beginning of 2023, the top executives of luxury goods giant LVMH showed their determination to resist beauty purchasing at the analyst conference call after the 2022 financial report. Bernard Arnault, CEO of the group, for example, said that in the past three years, the duty-free shops in South Korea were empty, but the duty-free business recorded high income. The reason behind this is that the products are directly transported from the warehouse to the professional purchasing hands, and then sold at a discounted price.

Jean-Jacques Guiony, the group’s chief financial officer, made it clear at the meeting that in order to protect brand assets, Luwei Mingxuan Group has made up its mind to eliminate all parallel channels of tourism retail around the world. The annual profit of the perfume and cosmetics department of the group also fell by 3% due to the termination of this channel business.

In this regard, Zhou Ting, president of VIP Research Institute, believes that beauty purchasing is the hardest hit area for fake beauty products, which not only affects the brand image, but also causes huge losses to brand sales and profits. Combating fake products is the general trend and the inevitable choice for all brands and enterprises.

Zhou Ting said that purchasing this kind of behavior disrupts the market order and affects the price policy for brands, so that brands can’t directly face and serve customers; For consumers, giving fake goods an opportunity, the rights and interests cannot be guaranteed, and the final damage is themselves. She believes that purchasing must be resolutely resisted.

Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yu Menger

Editor Jake

Proofread Lin Zhao

Photo by Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Yu Menger