India One Of The Top 10 Countries For Beiersdorf: Beiersdorf's Global CEO Vincent Warnery |CNBC TV18

You know, it means Nivea since 1913, for the first time when we had a Nivea product which was sold in India. And since then, we have been building year after year a very good, very strong presence in India. Nivea is the most trusted skincare brand for the fourth consecutive year, so really happy with the development of Nivea. But a lot to do. We are present in many product categories, but we are not present in the most important product category, which is face care, which is 60% of the total skincare market. And this is why I'm very happy to come today to India, because we are launching right now our first Nivea face product specially designed for India called Luminous, and I'm expecting a lot from this product.

You know, it's very interesting to see that globally you have 29% of the people have an issue linked with hyperpigmentation. 29% in India it's 37%. And we are coming with an ingredient which is called Thiamidol, that we launched in the world in 2018, which is the best anti-pigment ingredient in the world. We have been testing this ingredient over and over in all countries, and it's the most successful ever launch of Beiersdorf with Nivea. And we've been working the last two or three years to develop a specific offer for India using the same concentration that we have in the rest of the world in terms of efficacy. But I think packaging, having a product which is affordable because Nivea is affordable, Nivea is a value-for-money brand, and we didn't want to make the mistake that others have done to come at a price which was too high. So we have a very good price, it's 500 rupees, and you can find the product online and offline. And this is our first real entry into the face care market, so we're expecting a lot from the launch. Now with Nivea, we are also using the same ingredient but with a different formula, different concentration for Eucerin, which is our derma brand that we are introducing this week at the Derma Con in India. So we have a lot of hope linked to this hyperpigmentation consumer expectation which is developing across the world and particularly in India.

I mean, you know, what is very interesting when you look at Indian consumers, they move from a market of cold cream face care cream to a much more sophisticated offer. We're talking about serums, we're talking about ingredients, we're talking about efficacy. And we are surfing on this wave. We come in with the know-how of Beiersdorf, which is ingredients. Everything is based on ingredients. So Thiamidol, also soon Epicell on anti-aging, and we are developing formulas which are delivering true efficacy. And you're right to mention China. China also is obviously a very important market for this hyperpigmentation area, and we were lucky enough in November to get the first ever anti-hyperpigmentation ingredient validated by the regulatory authorities. So this is the first ever. So we also have a lot of hope for China, but it will come in 2026. So 2025, this is the year of India. We have a lot of hope in terms of growth for Nivea, the mother brand, but also the fact that over the next four months we will introduce – we have already introduced Eucerin, but will come with La Prairie, which is the most luxury brand in the world, with Chantecaille, which is a very nice brand. So in fact, between November 2024 and June 2025, you will have the full portfolio of Beiersdorf launched in India, which proves the importance of the Indian market for us and the fact that it is the most strategic market we want to succeed in after, as I said, 20 years of good buildup of the brand and good successes across the country.

But you know, today India is already one of the top 10 countries for Beiersdorf, and we have only two brands: we have Nivea and also Eucerin. So we are missing the three other big brands which are the ones we are launching in India right now. So obviously we are in the top 10 today. I'm expecting India to be in the top five pretty quickly. We have a fantastic ecosystem. We have an R&D center in India, we have a factory in India, so that's one of the only countries where we have the full spectrum of activities. We have an extremely good team with a strong leader. We've been also doing a pretty good job over the last 20 years. Often when you look at the history of a business, you see some mistakes, some failures. It's not the case for India. It was really a marathon. We've been going every year, and now I think the fact that we're able to come with this new ingredient, and this is the first time we are coming with such a new ingredient with an offer which is designed for Indian consumers, is making us very optimistic because it's surfing on the wave of sophistication of the market. It is clearly a big priority. And online, we've been doubling the business since last year, and we have a fantastic partnership with Nykaa and a lot of e-commerce players. It's also about digitalization. We talk about influencer marketing. We are no longer doing the classical TV that we used to do in the past when I was myself in marketing. We are using influencers, we are using digital media to talk to audience. So I think all the things happening in India, and particularly the fact that there is this increase of the middle class who wants to take care of their beauty, wants to take care of their skin, is something which is a fantastic accelerator for us. I think we have never felt so ready for India than in 2025, and this is why we have this extreme dynamism launching three brands in six months.

I think what I did perhaps simply is to go back to the history of Beiersdorf. It's very interesting to see that Beiersdorf already 140 years ago invented modern skincare. We invented the value-for-money brand which is Nivea. We invented also derma, the first dermatologic brand, Eucerin was created by Beiersdorf. And then over the years, we lost a little bit this edge, we lost a little bit this focus. We were a bit too distracted by other product categories. So the first thing I've done is to say it's great to have a lot of product categories, but there is nothing more important than skincare. And the focus on skincare has been absolutely clear for each and every country, for every brand. The second element, I mentioned that to you in the beginning of the interview, the R&D engine. We are a fantastic team of 1,000 researchers, some of them based in Mumbai, some of them in Hamburg, in Shanghai, in New Jersey, which have a fantastic know-how in skincare R&D. And I was able to put more money obviously, but also to strengthen the organization to be sure that we get back to what we used to be, the motor of Beiersdorf: we find extraordinary ingredients and we use them for our brands. So used to be Thiamidol in 2018, you will hear soon about Epicell, an anti-aging ingredient that we're launching right now which is a fantastic anti-aging ingredient. We have other things coming in acne also. And acne is a very interesting story for India, that 70% of Indian people have an issue with acne while globally it's 40%. So you imagine also the potential for a company like us to enter this market. So back to ingredient. And last but not least, an appetite for growth, an appetite for entering white spaces. And India was a white space. We were good with some product categories but with only a few brands. So being more daring, bolder in entering China, India, even the US, Africa where we have some business but we are not as big as we should be. And I think this recipe is working pretty well. We are in a very dynamic market. The beauty market is a great market. In bad years you grow 4%, in good years you grow up to 6%. We've been able to overperform the market and all our competitors in '23, in '24, hopefully in the last quarter we'll see soon the results of our competitors. But there is clearly a new growth appetite for this company with brands which, as you mentioned in the beginning, are super well known and super respected by consumers. So that makes a pretty successful recipe for us, and this is why we are pretty successful in '24 and '23 and hopefully in 2025.

That's a great question. In terms of investment, we spend 3% of our sales in R&D, which is the best in class. If you look at L'Oreal, they are exactly the same figure. So really investing big, and we never question these figures even in difficult years. I know the COVID year 2020 we spent 3% of our net sales in R&D. I think what we have done is to refocus first the R&D on this search for outstanding ingredients, moving away from perhaps what we call marketing innovation, which is more concept and claims, into true R&D discovery of new ingredients. And then being sure that we leverage them on all our brands. We call that brand cascading. With the same ingredient, you can have a totally different formula and totally different story on Nivea, on Eucerin, on La Prairie, and Chantecaille. And it's a pity to use only one brand to leverage one ingredient. So we've been doing that with Thiamidol, which has been launched on Eucerin, Nivea, La Prairie, and next month we launch it under Chantecaille. We'll do that also with Epicell. And all our countries, all our business units are focusing most of the investment on the products which are using those ingredients, because this is where we make the difference, and this is pretty paying off.