Beiersdorf AG
XETRA:BEI
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Beiersdorf AG
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Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Timo, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the IR call Q1 2021. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jens Geißler, Head of Investor Relations of Beiersdorf AG. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our quarterly statements conference call. This is Jens Geißler.We would like to share with you Beiersdorf's business results of the first quarter 2021. However, this will be -- will not be the only news today. Last night, we issued an ad hoc statement about the change in the Chief Executive Officer at Beiersdorf. Stefan De Loecker will hand over to Vincent Warnery as of May 1.So here with me this morning is Stefan; and our CFO, Astrid Hermann; and also Vincent, who will briefly introduce himself during the call. As usual, Stefan and Astrid will present our numbers and the business review. They will be happy to take your questions after that. At the next quarterly call, once the transition is completed, you will have the opportunity to ask questions to Vincent, of course. [Operator Instructions]And with that, I will now hand over to Stefan De Loecker.
Thank you, Jens. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Also from my side, I'd like to welcome you to our conference call, which I will chair for the last time today as CEO of Beiersdorf AG.Before I conclude with a few personal remarks, we will first look at our business performance in the first quarter of 2021. We have already published our preliminary figures at the beginning of April.The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic again presented exceptional challenges as we started into 2021. Despite the uncertain times, however, we see a significant improvement in our business performance in the first 3 months, having achieved growth in what remains a very challenging market environment.Our Consumer Business Segment continued to face difficulties in many parts of the world in the beginning of 2021. Numerous restrictions and lockdowns remain on the agenda in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is especially true in Europe. In the regions like many parts in Asia, on the other hand, our business is starting to show signs of improvement.As the skin care business continued to outperform the market, we succeeded increasing our consumer sales in many regions in the first quarter despite the difficult conditions. NIVEA in the emerging markets, notwithstanding declining market, our Eucerin and Aquaphor dermatological skin care brands as well as our La Prairie selective cosmetics brands are the main drivers in this respect.Our growth in the first quarter can also be attributed to the increase in our online sales. We achieved a growth rate of more than 70% in e-commerce in the Consumer Business Segment in the first quarter, both in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom or Germany as well as in China or the emerging markets. And we are delighted that our tesa Business Segment achieved such an exceptionally strong start to the fiscal year, due especially to the high demand in industrial business. Astrid Hermann will come back on -- to this again in detail later.Let's take a look how -- now at what these developments mean in sales figures before I give you a more detailed insight into the performance of our brands. We were able to increase sales organically in the Consumer Business Segment by 2.7% year-on-year, thanks to the excellent performance of the Eucerin, Aquaphor and La Prairie brands and the majority of our emerging markets. Together with the exceptionally strong result achieved by tesa of 23.6%, we achieved organic sales growth of 6.3% in the group in the first quarter compared with the previous year.Firstly, our NIVEA core brand, which achieved a turnaround in the first quarter in comparison with the previous year. While the global skin care mass market remains in decline, we were able to gain additional market share with NIVEA in our growth markets, in Japan and in the United States. Latin America and Malaysia, Thailand and also South Africa are driving this positive development. Overall, NIVEA was able to close out the first quarter with a positive growth in sales of 0.5%.Our skin care business recorded a solid growth in sales despite the continuing difficulties on the market for sun care and lip care products. Our face care and personal care product categories, in particular, were the main sales drivers here.One product range that performed positively in the first quarter is our NIVEA CELLULAR LUMINOUS630 face care range, which we now plan to roll out globally following a successful test market launched last year. The care range helps consumers who suffer from an irregular skin pigmentation and is setting new standards for innovations in skin care. Our NIVEA Hydra skin Effect face care range has also been on the market since January, and which -- with hyaluronic acid, it provides 72-hour hydration for skin.I announced you -- to you in February that we would be continuously examining how we can reach our sustainability goals, for example, in the area of climate neutrality even faster and achieve further advancements as each new product development and improvement is launched. Now just a few months later, we're consistently implementing our ambitious Care Beyond Skin sustainability agenda at product level and driving our climate action forward intensely. The NIVEA Naturally Good face care range is to bring the first climate-neutralized products to market in around 30 countries, with others to follow. From June, the entire NIVEA shower gel range for the German market will also be available as a climate-neutralized range. The key aspect here is the packaging. Plant-based renewable plastic will be -- will replace fossil-based virgin plastic, thus reducing CO2 emissions. With this packaging innovation, Beiersdorf is consistently turning its goals into concrete action. By 2025, it is the plan to use 50% less fossil-based virgin plastic. With these jars made of renewable plastic, Beiersdorf is a pioneer in the industry.And we have achieved a further milestone with NIVEA. NIVEA's first certified natural cosmetics products hit German shelves in the past few weeks. The NIVEA Wonderbars not only impressive, thanks to their plastic-free packaging but also their sustainable formula. The soap-free bars for facial cleansing are vegan, skin and environmentally-friendly and contain no micro plastics. The global rollout is set to commence in the coming month.We are continuing to build on the success achieved in the previous year with our Eucerin and Aquaphor dermatological brands, with a further double-digit increase in sales of 12.1% in the first quarter of 2021. And this despite the already strong performance recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. Substantial upturns in sales were recorded particularly in Latin America and the United States. The similar picture can also be seen with the growth in market shares of our Derma-cosmetics brands.We are continuing to expand our strong market position in almost every single category in which we are active. We managed to gain further market share, especially in Europe and North America. A key factor in this regard is our successful Eucerin Thiamidol range, which we are continually developing and which is helping to spearhead growth both in terms of increased sales and greater market share. Innovations like these make Eucerin one of the leading providers of medical cosmetics for skin care.Our goal is to continue to develop our innovative power and to steadily enhance our brand and product portfolio. After all, consumers still need to address real skin problems even in times of crisis. Sun protection is one of the key topics for 2021 with our Eucerin brand. We launched the brand's first medical product on the market a few weeks ago. The new Eucerin Actinic Control sun cream with sun protection factor 100 offers clinically proven protection against sun-induced skin damage and is ideal for consumers with actinic keratosis, the most common precursor to skin cancer.Our exclusive La Prairie skin care brand had to battle hardest against the effect of the pandemic in the past year especially because of airport closures and a significant reduction in travel volumes. Yet, La Prairie managed to increase its sales again as early as the second half of 2020 and is continuing this trend now in the first quarter, too, with sales growth of 17%, and this despite ongoing restrictions in travel retail. In China, in particular, one of the main markets for La Prairie, we are recording high growth rates, both in our beauty stores and in the domestic travel retail area around the Chinese province of Hainan. Moreover, the selective cosmetics brands are also succeeding in further expanding growth in online business. A few months back, we launched La Prairie on China's largest e-commerce platform, Tmall. We are already seeing the first promising results and extending our reach by addressing a younger customer cohort.The quick recovery experienced by La Prairie is also attributable to strong research and development and a successful innovation pipeline, which enjoys the confidence of consumers. A new collection has been on the market since February, with the La Prairie Platinum Rare skin rejuvenation collection, which covers the entire skin care routine. La Prairie has always enrich, especially its chosen formulations, with a precious ingredients, platinum, and is now offering an entire collection, which promotes rejuvenating processes in the skin layers, and, therefore, reduces visible sign of skin aging. After just one month of intense treatment, for example, the La Prairie Platinum Rare Skin Rejuvenation Protocol reduces the appearance of fine lines and restores the skin's density to give a youthful radiance.I would like now to hand over to my colleague, Astrid Hermann, at this point. She will present the financial results for the individual regions for the Consumer Business Segment and look at the successful quarter enjoyed by tesa. Please, Astrid.
Thank you very much, Stefan. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would also like to welcome you to our Q1 webcast for this year. For the first time, I have the pleasure of presenting the financial figures for the Beiersdorf Group.Let's take another look at the sales figures for the group as well as for our 2 business segments. In our Consumer Business Segment, we were able to increase sales organically in the first quarter by 2.7%. Due to negative currency effects, nominal sales were reduced by 2.1%. tesa increased sales organically by a very strong 23.6%. Exchange rate effects led to a nominal growth of 20.4% compared to the prior year quarter. At group level, we recorded total sales of around EUR 1.9 billion and therefore, an organic sales growth of 6.3% in the first quarter.Next, we will turn to the performance of the individual regions in the Consumer Business Segment. Business in Europe remained difficult and was marked by a raft of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the result that we recorded a slightly negative sales growth of 0.8%. Western and Eastern Europe were impacted to a similar extent by the lockdown. Demand in key markets such as Germany, United Kingdom or Poland continued to weaken as a result of the pandemic. In contrast, we made slight sales gains in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, thanks to strong sales performance in the Derma business.Growth in the Americas region was boosted by the strong performance in Latin America. While the Derma business with Eucerin and Aquaphor continued to record strong growth in North America, the La Prairie brand in the United States remains heavily impacted by the pandemic restrictions. In addition, the NIVEA business was adversely affected in the first quarter. This was due to the temporary closure of our warehouse in Memphis as a result of severe winter storms.Latin America once more achieved the highest growth rates with organic growth of 16% on top of a double-digit growth rate in the same quarter last year. Growth was spearheaded in particular by Brazil, Chile and Mexico, both in the mass market and in the Derma business. We were also able to report positive growth of 5.6% for Africa, Asia and Australia. In addition to the strong growth of La Prairie in this region, as alluded to previously, this was led by countries such as India, which achieved good growth in the mass market; or Thailand, where we achieved significant sales growth both in the mass market and in the dermatological area.We already reported on the excellent performance of tesa in the first quarter with growth of 23.6%. This allowed tesa to seamlessly continue the strong performance already recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020. tesa posted double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2021 in all business areas. Overall growth was driven strongly by the Direct Industries division, which posted growth of 30.7%.Electronics, the segment around the smartphone and tablet market, continued the strong trend of the last 6 months. This growth was achieved especially in Asia. It should be mentioned here, however, that this area was already impacted by the pandemic in the prior year quarter.The automotive industry experienced a global recovery, which meant that the tesa business areas in the field of electrical systems and automotive also performed well recently. That said, further development in the automotive sector remains uncertain for the time being since the production capabilities of automakers are impacted by difficulties with microchip deliveries at present.The Trade Markets division also managed to record an exceptional quarter and posted growth of 12.7%, thanks to ongoing strong demand in consumer and craftsmen business, especially in the do-it-yourself area. The main drivers here were, on the one hand, the building store supplies, which were allowed to remain open despite lockdowns; and on the other hand, strong growth in online trade, both among online retailers and on proprietary platforms.Just a few weeks ago, tesa began laying the foundations to enable the strong performance to continue into the future by expanding its plant in the Chinese city of Suzhou. The heart of the new building, with a total area of 15,000 square meters and an investment of EUR 32 million, is one of the world's most modern, clean room units for the production of precision adhesive tapes. Also in the pipeline is the construction of a further plant in Vietnam with an investment volume of EUR 55 million, where tesa will produce adhesive tapes for the Asian market from 2023. Both of these projects are being driven by the desire to respond faster to high customer demand locally in the region and to increase market share sustainably.As a supplier to the automotive sector, cooperation with automakers are a further important pillar. For example, tesa recently developed an innovative robot-based production process in collaboration with Porsche AG. The innovative and precision sealing patches from tesa are being used instead of traditional plastic plugs, which have been used in the past to seal holes in car bodies to prevent corrosion. The all-electric Porsche Taycan is the first car in the world to use this innovative sealing process, thus optimizing the entire production efficiency.Before we finish our presentation, let's take another look at the guidance. We hereby confirm our guidance from our last presentation. This means that we expect sales growth in both business segments and at group level to be positive. We also expect the EBIT margin in the Consumer Business Segment and at group level to be at last year's level, while tesa's EBIT margin is expected to be below last year's level.I would like to thank you for your attention and hand over now to Stefan.
Thank you, Astrid. Notwithstanding that many markets in the world are still very affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a turnaround in Q1 of both our consumer and tesa businesses, mainly thanks to the continued overperformance versus the market.We are well set up for a strong Q2 in comparison to last year's quarter based on a strong innovation pipeline and the increased investments in digital connection with consumers and shoppers. The pandemic will also continue to have an impact on the way we work. Our employees have been working from home for more than a year now, where their work has allowed. We are continuing to do all we can to support them in the best possible way during this challenging time and to protect them since their health is our highest priority. The best way we can fight this pandemic is by all of us pulling together. This applies to all safety precautions, to the current strengthening of our testing activities and the global vaccination program.Still, the recovery profile in many countries in the world remains unclear. Europe still faces lockdowns. The COVID-19 development in the emerging markets is sometimes [ sparing ]. However, as already stated in the full year 2020 results, I'm convinced the situation of consumers will improve throughout the year as vaccination progresses. Based on this perspective and our Q1 performance gives growth -- gives ground for cautious optimism for the future.Allow me to conclude with a couple of personal words. I would like to thank all employees, customers and partner as well as yourself for the cooperation and contact over the last couple of years. When I started as CEO in 2019, my goal for Beiersdorf was to pave the way for a successful future. With our C.A.R.E.+ strategy in place, I'm convinced that we have laid the strong foundation for the future. I wish my successor and colleague, Vincent Warnery, all the best and every success in the journey ahead. It's fascinating times, and I am -- will be there to support.With this, I would like to thank you for your attention and hand you over now to Jens Geißler for the questions-and-answer session.
Well, thank you very much, Stefan and Astrid. Well, now before we move to the Q&A, Vincent will say a couple of words.
Thanks, Jens. Stefan, I would like to thank you for the outstanding teamwork over the past 4 years and for everything you have achieved for the company. And it is also because of your commitments that Beiersdorf managed the crisis so well and started the new year so powerfully. So really thank you so much, and I will count on your support in the coming months and years.Ladies and gentlemen, some of you already know me. Others, I've not have had any contact with you so far. So let me briefly outline my CV. I've spent my entire professional life in the health and cosmetics industry, among other, at Procter & Gamble, L'Oréal and Sanofi. I've been with Beiersdorf since 2017. And most recently, I was the Executive Board Member responsible for pharmacy and selective business at Beiersdorf and also assume overall responsibility for North America in 2020.Over the past years, I worked closely with the entire team on the C.A.R.E+ strategy. I'm convinced that with our focus on digitalization, on growth markets, on sustainability, we have found the right answers to the questions and expectations of our consumers. For me, Beiersdorf is an outstanding company with amazing brands, with great potential and an exceptional team. And I'm really looking forward to leading Beiersdorf in these exceptional times in my new role.Thank you very much.
Thank you, Vincent. We will now start the Q&A session and are happy to take your questions. [Operator Instructions]
[Operator Instructions]
So we will start with Iain Simpson of Barclays.
A couple of questions from me, please. Firstly, on sun care, are you able to give us any indication of what Q2 retailer demand looks like? Are we seeing any stocks being built up in expectations of summer demand? And what might sun care recovery mean for margins?And then secondly, if I may, you're putting in local manufacturing capacity for tesa. Do you have any plans to do similar in consumer? I think there are still quite a lot of sizable markets, especially in Lat Am and Asia, where you lack local manufacturing in certain categories?
Thank you for your questions, Iain. On sun care, we see obviously, the [ ease of ] season has been impacted quite considerably. We see a buildup for the sun care season towards the summer, albeit not yet on the level of a -- what we would call a normal sun season because there is obviously still some hesitation. But we see that cautious optimism growing because of vaccination program, the outlook and the desire of people to start traveling again as such. So we -- although in the beginning, it was reluctant, the sun volumes, going out, is picking up at this moment. It's too early now to see where this really lands obviously as such. And as you know, any upside has obviously a positive impact on the margin.On local manufacturing, we have invested since 2018 in expanding our local manufacturing capacities and capabilities throughout the world. Just to give a little overview, we doubled the capacity in Mexico, which is servicing basically the North American and the Middle American market. We doubled the capacity in Itatiba, the factory in Brazil which basically services Latin America. We established production units in Nigeria, in Egypt, next to our Kenyan factory, to service smaller but very promising markets in Africa. We obviously -- we doubled the capacity in India. And we merged the factories in China and expanded to Thailand factory. So I think there's a lot of the investments in expanding outside of Europe. And we are obviously looking and seeing the development in the emerging markets to continue to do so in line with the development.
Very clear. And welcome to the role, Vincent.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. So we move on, please, to Guillaume Delmas of UBS.
My first question is on yesterday's announcement. I mean, could you help us reconcile the fact that the Supervisory Board seems very supportive of your strategy, C.A.R.E.+? The Board seems also quite pleased with the improved market share momentum, so your improved outperformance. And yet, I don't think we've ever seen so many personnel changes at the helm of Beiersdorf happening in such a short period of time. So basically, this apparent paradox between a very happy enthusiastic Supervisory Board and quite a drastic change in personnel. So what are we missing here?And then my second question is on La Prairie. Your growth in Q1 was actually slightly lower than what you reported in Q4 despite a much easier comparator in that first quarter. So question here would be, is the recovery of La Prairie happening at a slightly slower pace than you initially anticipated? Or does Q1 simply reflect a contrasted performance from one month to another, with maybe a very slow start to the year in January and a very strong finish in March? So any color on that in terms of exit rate would be quite helpful.
Thank you, Guillaume. On the first question as such, yes, the Supervisory Board is very supportive for the C.A.R.E.+ strategy and the decisions we took and we will be taking further. Considering the deployment and the efforts that we put in that, we are outperforming the market as such. So in so far, I think it is an accurate situation. I will obviously -- cannot comment on what is happening in the Executive Board as this is a Supervisory Board responsibility, but it's obviously inherent the part of -- the fact that this comes at the natural situation of finishing contracts as such. So in so far, albeit it might be looking like a lot of changes, but I do not see the link or I don't think there is a paradox between the Supervisory Board assessment and what is happening in the Executive Board.On La Prairie, I think there are 2 factors to mention. The first one is that January last year was an extremely -- an exceptional strong year in -- month in China. So we're running against in China in January last year an extremely high comparison. That's number one. The number two is that we obviously, as you know, rationalized further our store program in Europe mainly. And obviously, now that it has been implemented, you run as well in Europe against a, by far, bigger store footprint as we had last year. So in total, I would not say that it is slower than we would have estimated. In fact, we see dynamics that are clearly above the -- our original estimates.
I see next on the line is Celine Pannuti of JPMorgan.
Yes. My first question is on NIVEA, 0.5% for the first quarter. I think it's quite a low number. So you said you were gaining share. Can you explain what do you think the market growth is and where you are gaining share? And is it possible to understand or to get a bit of grasp on how you are doing it on face care and versus maybe other categories like sun care or the personal wash categories?And my second question is on Asia. I think that I was a bit surprised by the lack of a rebound in Asia. I presume that even if you said that La Prairie had tough comp, it must have done quite well with the Tmall launch. So could you give us a bit more color on the growth performance in Asia maybe either by brands or by countries?
Thank you, Celine. On the very first one, the NIVEA positive growth is against the negative developing market still. Obviously, it's a heterogenous over -- or heterogenous situation country by country. But in total, the market growth is still negative. As you know, the NIVEA size in Europe and the strong situation we have there, it's also the market that is the most heavily impacted. If you -- just as one example, the German market development in the first quarter was still deeply negative and so far is a positive growth against that background of a negative market development allows us to gain shares, obviously.Category by category, there are some significant differences like there was also last year that continues, where personal care categories, specifically body cleansing, is doing well. Other categories like men or sun as a category are still very much more impacted, which obviously in the mix has an impact as such. Face care, it has been one of the strongest performances of NIVEA in that category. As I already mentioned in my presentation, the launches we have are contributing significantly. Both the luminous -- NIVEA CELLULAR LUMINOUS630 launch is doing very well. The Hydra care range that we've launched is doing very well and the NIVEA Naturally Good. They all contribute to a strong market share gain in the face care category. Face cleansing categories are also much more impacted as such as a category and very competitive. But also there, we have a good market share growth.Asia is obviously also very heterogenous. First of all, a market like India is certainly very impacted. And we know and we see how the COVID-19 impact is continuing, impacting in one of our growth markets as such. You know about the relative size and the relative impact of China. And so far, we are obviously happy with the rebound of the Chinese market and the -- how that also helps and supports our brands. But in a total weight, that obviously is not coming through at the same or not that visible at the same level. But we see markets in Asian, for example, going well in the recovery and our performance in that market as such.
We move on, and I see Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein is next, please.
Mine is on travel retail. Could you please tell me in quarter 1 whether travel retail globally is up or down and by how much?And second of all, Hainan, sort of the new duty free in China. How big a part of your travel retail would that be today?
Thank you for the questions as such. Travel retail globally would still be negative as such, where the Hainan growth is triple-digit growth level. I will not comment on the size and the -- or the relative size of the Chinese retail -- travel retail in our total travel retail business as such, but that is -- are the main developments.
Thank you. I can see David Hayes of Societe Generale. David?
So 2 from me, 1 on NIVEA, 1 on La Prairie. So on the NIVEA side, with the head of NIVEA moving on a few weeks ago, I think it was going to be moved across to the CEO, is that still going to be the plan with the change of CEO at the end of June? Or is there any internal succession plan in place that will kind of kick in now to change that role?And I guess related to that, in terms of the expenditure you've been making under the CARE program, would you say that the expenditure has not gone into the places where the company feels it's being best spent? And is that going to change as part of that NIVEA head role changing moving forward?And then on La Prairie, just to come back to the questions on the growth. Year -- versus 2019, I think that the brand's down about 25%, looking at the growth that you just reported in the first quarter of '21. That minus 25% versus '19, is that at a level that we could see through the rest of this year? Or does that get better as travel retail comes back online? Is that kind of the dependency in terms of that minus 25% improving through the rest of this year?
Thank you for the questions, David. The first is, understandably, that I will not comment on structures going forward. One thing is, I think is very important to underline, is that -- is that we are planning a continuous and strong handover. And so far, the structure that we have now is what is in place and what we will continue, me being still part of the Board. And then obviously, the development Vincent will comment, then I will be able to communicate the next time.As Vincent already said is the C.A.R.E.+ strategy is in place. The deployment is in place. And in so far, that is -- that will continue to be the guidance principles. More details, same thing. Please allow Vincent to look and to make his own perception on the details of the content.Yes, la Prairie, we expect that as -- if this -- assuming always that the situation around the world continues to develop as we believe it's going to develop, the La Prairie performance should further strengthen throughout the year.
David, are you good?
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. We move on please to Tom Sykes of Deutsche Bank, please.
Yes. Firstly, just are you able to give some details on the online growth by brand or by geography? Or maybe just outline where the particular areas of strength have actually been, please.And then just on the, I suppose, the revenue beat versus the guidance. Obviously, early in the year and some conservatism, but did the Q1 number actually come in ahead of where you were budgeting for when you gave the full year guidance, and as such, the investment now is a little bit higher? Or is it just we didn't know what the Q1 number was going to be, and therefore, your investment plans sort of aren't changing, hence, the -- no change at the margin level, please?
On the online growth, online growth is extremely strong double-digit in every area in which we operate, in every region and in every [ BBU ] and for every brand. We will not break down more in particular there, as such. But it is, I would say, fairly coherent performance throughout the company.On the outlook, I can only reiterate what we said. We believe that it remains very difficult and also very difficult to exactly estimate where the revenue and the markets are heading for. And we see also at the end, looking back at quarter 1, that there are -- it's a very heterogenous situation depending on markets that have been underperforming where you see market decline stronger than what we would have expected and there are other ones who are developing better.We are agile in so far within our investment program that we will continue. And we have always invested against performance in the market where we see the opportunity where we can accelerate. And so far, the fundamental principle of how we have applied it within quarter 1 has given the result that we just covered as such.
Okay. Could I just ask one quick follow-up on that though, please? On tesa, obviously, an area of strength. As it stands at the moment, do you still expect that to be in growth in H2 given the growth that you had in H2 last year?
So maybe I can answer that question. It's obviously great to see the very strong start of tesa in the year. That said, we did have a very strong back half last year, and we will face some tough comparisons. We are optimistic, but we need to see how things are developing. We also described the challenges in the automotive industry with supply shortages there. So we will need to understand how that is impacting the business as well.In addition, we are seeing input prices increasing as well, as well as some shortages on key input ingredients as well. So a little -- we are optimistic, but we need to be also careful as we do have a very strong comparison. Thank you.
Thank you. So we move to Chris Pitcher of Redburn now, please.
A couple of questions for me, please. Firstly, on Coppertone, can you give us a bit more of an update on the performance there in terms of the innovation pipeline we should expect? And perhaps maybe the update on how the sort of the relative distribution is for Coppertone versus NIVEA.And then secondly, on tesa, following on from the previous question. I mean, was the performance in Q1 in line with your plan because the operational gearing into that sales must have freed up more funds to invest? Or have you accelerated investment plans? I'm just intrigued why the sticking with the margin guidance after such a strong start.
Thank you, Chris. On Coppertone, what we see is that, in line with the plans that we have, Coppertone is gearing up in -- is gaining market share in the month behind us. It is gaining share both online and off-line. And it is driven by the 2 elements you just mentioned yourself, is the pipeline, the further development of the strong innovations specifically in sports, for example, which is one of the major segment of Coppertone in the United States; but also, to the increased collaboration with customers or key customers like Walmart, for example. And that, combined with the increased operational excellence, makes that Coppertone is -- has a good start of the year and is well prepared for the season as such.On tesa, Astrid?
Sure. So similarly to the previous answer, we are facing some challenges in terms of supply as well as input prices. Therefore, we are watching and understanding what's happening to tesa. And we are very much reconfirming the investment plan that we have put in place, that really is around the areas that are driving growth as well. We need to address sustainability, digitalization. I commented on the performance of e-com to our tesa business, which is very important, as well as continue to drive our IT work in that area. So we are continuing to invest as we had planned to do, and we will watch and see how the tesa business will develop.
Could I -- sorry, just a follow-up on a comment on Coppertone. Is the strengthening performance on Coppertone, is that strengthening your appetite for M&A again? Or you probably can't answer that, but...
I like you answered the question that I can't answer. So insofar, we are on one line. Our M&A focus remains as it is with the same focus that we had before.
Okay. So now we move to the last caller. We have Crédit Suisse on the line, Faham.
Two from me, one on La Prairie. Could you just help us or could you share the progression at La Prairie in the domestic online platforms, particularly Tmall? How that's progressing? How demand there is progressing? And also, how you're balancing the exclusivity that you've always looked to keep with that brand?And then secondly, just a quick question on tesa. Q1 was certainly better than expectations embedded in some of your peers as well. Are there any one-offs in the sense of pre-buy-ins that you might highlight there?
Thank you. On La Prairie, Tmall, the performance confirms what I already commented before. We see that the demand is good, is strong, very specific as such. It allows La Prairie to recruit new customers. And these customers tend to be slightly younger than the normal or the usual key target group of La Prairie. So it allows us really to reach out and reach potential customers that the purely domestic store network doesn't reach. The exclusivity and the way it is driven as such is, first of all, there is a specific service program that is linked to the Tmall activation, which is obviously different than the one in the store for obvious reasons, but it does reflect the same way of addressing customers as we would do in the stores.The second part is the connection to off-line, obviously, starting from the recruitment. Because we still have -- considering the importance of treatment and personal context for the La Prairie brand, to experience the full La Prairie brand, that connection is an important one. And we see also the clear success we have in being able to channel, basically, these recruited customers to the stores and insofar to really create a one integrated customer experience between off and online.
And I will take your question around tesa. So we did not have any pre-buy-ins. We did have very strong growth in all business segments, as we reiterated in our presentation, particularly strong growth in electronics which was impacted in the prior year in China very significantly. So we saw very strong growth there, but also broad based growth in the other areas, automotive as well as consumer and craftsmen.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. I see one more name here, Karel Zoete of Kepler, the final questions.
I have 2 questions. The first one is on pricing and, in particular, in the mass market segment. What are you seeing in Europe in the light of the higher input costs and also in some of your key emerging markets?And the second question is on your white space or market entrants with your Derma brands. You've started to go for that more actively last year already and the year before. Given the success where we are with the Eucerin, Aquaphor, can we anticipate more market entrants over the coming period?
Yes. Thank you, Karel, for the questions. On pricing in mass, we have not seen immediately a lot of activations yet. But considering the development of the commodities, that cannot be obviously excluded as such. But in Europe, mass, at this moment, there is not that much visible in our categories.On white spaces, we've entered a couple of very important critical markets over the last couple of years. We -- and together, Vincent and myself basically very together entered Brazil when I was heading the emerging markets and obviously, Vincent, Derma. That development has been astonishing and very strong. We entered China. We entered China, and we entered Russia. And so far, we've entered big cosmetic -- Derma-cosmetic markets. And we'll obviously continue to monitor where are the possibilities, also looking in different ways of doing that. It's very clear that the key focus is on making an entry and a stand in the biggest Derma-cosmetic markets around the world.Thank you very much. At the end of this call, I would simply like to finish. I know that our guidance does not always match your expectations and didn't always make me the flavor of the month, I imagine, but I always consequently expressed my honest outlook view at that moment.I also, from my side, would like to iterate that I valued your insightful analysis of both the markets and Beiersdorf. I'm proud to have been initiated the C.A.R.E.+ strategy with its focus on digitalization, innovation internationalization and sustainability. And as I said, and I want to reiterate, I would generally wish my successor, Vincent, in line with our year-long collaboration, all the best and the energy for further accelerating and implementing it.I genuinely hope we will have continued to connect in the future privately or professionally. Keep safe and healthy. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you all for having joined our conference call. We very much appreciate your interest in Beiersdorf. So thank you, and goodbye.