Niveas Income grows 13% until June in Brazil
Valor Econômico
In the first quarter, Nivea do Brasil had growth of 17.4% in sales to wholesale, in relation to the same period of 2008. Last year, it had already accumulated growth of 22%. Yesterday, when the German multinational Beiersdorf announced its performance in the first semester, Brazil was again in the spotlight. Amid humble results, mainly in North America, the national market generated sales 13.2% bigger between January and June.
The demand has grown so much and so frequently that the company is even importing deodorants from Argentina to cater to the local market. "Beiersdorf should announce new investments in Brazil at the end of 2010", said Nicolas Fisher, CEO of Nivea do Brasil, to Valor, without providing details on the possibility of new plants here. The company invested, in 2006, R$ 10 million (US$ 5.41 million) to increase the capacity of the plant it has in Itatiba (SP). The goal was to have structure to grow 15% a year up to 2010. But the capacity, as it seems, is already near its end.
In retail, according to Fisher, the growth of Nivea was even bigger. "Our sales to the consumer grew 22.1% in the half compared to the first six months of last year", said the CEO. In the same six months, the categories in which Nivea operates in Brazil had growth of 15.6% in income, according to data of Nielsen. From now to December, the expectation of the company is to close the year with a total increase in sales between 15% and 20%. "The second half is always better because we concentrate most of our launchings in it, due to the beginning of summer", explains Fisher.
Nivea, according to him, is the market leader in body lotions and products for the skin of the face. In sun screens, deodorants and in other categories in which the company operates it appears in second place in the preference of the consumer. Worldwide, however, Beiersdorf, did not have such a good performance and ended up announcing more modest results yesterday. The contrast between the bad international results and great figures of growth in Brazil has been a constant in the cosmetics sector.