Europe’s largest prestige beauty retailer has lowered its forecast for the current financial year in light of a slowdown in the premium beauty market – most notably in Germany and France.
Douglas AG said “the already weak customer sentiment in the market has continued to deteriorate since February, leading to a decline in footfall in stores and traffic online.”
In a conference call with investors, Douglas CEO Sander van der Laan said he was surprised by the speed at which the market had deteriorated over the past three months.
The company attributes the market development mainly to a growing uncertainty regarding macro-economic and geopolitical tensions, the economic and political situation in Germany and looming international trade conflicts which could harm key industries and burden the overall purchasing power in Europe.
In Germany, van der Laan also flagged pressure on Douglas’ sales and gross profit in its e-commerce channel from discounts at online perfume retailer Flaconi, which is owned by German media group ProSiebenSat.
Against this background, the retailer forecasts a turnover of 4.5 billion euros for the 2024-2025 financial year, compared to 4.7 to 4.8 billion initially expected, and net income of around of 175 million euros, compared to 225 to 265 million previously announced.
The perfume chain returned to the Frankfurt stock exchange in March 2024.
