Puig saw shares plummeting on Friday September 6th at the Madrid stock exchange after the Barcelona-based fashion and beauty group reported lower-than-expected earnings in the first half of the year.
The company behind beauty and fragrance brands Charlotte Tilbury, Rabanne, Carolina Herrera and Jean Paul Gaultier said net profit fell 26% to EUR 153.8 million (USD 171 million), while sales grew 9.6% to EUR 2.17 billion euros (USD 2.41 billion).
Fragrances and fashion, the largest and most lucrative sector for the group, witnessed a substantial revenue spike of over 10.7%. French brand Jean Paul Gaultier enjoyed strong demand, capturing new consumers with the launch of its new fragrances La Belle, Le Beau, and Scandal Absolu. Jean Paul Gaultier joined Carolina Herrera and Rabanne in the top 10 ranking fragrances worldwide for the first time. For its part, Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl maintained its #2 feminine fragrance ranking worldwide.
Puig explained for the disappointing earnings by the costs related to its initial public offering (IPO) in May and subsequent employee bonuses. Nevertheless, the group said to be optimistic for the whole of 2024, given the good performance of its "prestige brands", particularly in Europe and North America, and the integration of the Dr Barbara Strum brand, acquired at the beginning of the year. The acquisition of Dr. Barbara Sturm had a EUR 28 million or 1.4% positive impact on net revenues.
However, some makeup brands such as Christian Louboutin had suffered from their exposure to a sluggish Asian market, particularly in China, where wavering economic conditions are impacting consumer spending habits.
"While our fragrances and fashion business remains our largest segment, we further diversified into skincare - our fastest growing business segment during the first half - with a strong organic growth component and a strategic brand acquisition," said Marc Puig, Chairman and CEO of Puig,
