Puig said on Monday that sales rose 7.5 per cent like-for-like in the first quarter of 2025, reaching €1.2 billion. It’s a strong showing against a difficult global backdrop, but the conglomerate warned that it expects a slower growth this year thanks to a softened consumer outlook and US tariffs but maintains its 6-8 per cent guidance for 2025. The company’s share price rose 2.5 per cent the same day.
“We’re off to a strong start in 2025, continuing to outperform the premium beauty market. Once again, our largest segment — fragrance and fashion — is our top performer, which is a testament to the strength of our prestige and niche brands and the desirability and resilience of our portfolio,” said Puig CEO Marc Puig in a statement. “We’re also pleased to see growth across all regions, with the Americas outperforming.”
By category, the fragrance and fashion division (accounting for 74 per cent of Puig’s revenue) delivered €896.4 million in net revenue, up 10.4 per cent like-for-like driven by Rabanne’s Phantom, Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl and Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, part of the prestige portfolio, while recent market performances from Byredo’s March launch of Blanche Absolu strengthened the niche category’s outlook in the quarter. Skincare (a portfolio featuring Dr Barbara Sturm, Charlotte Tilbury skincare and Uriage) was up 7.2 per cent, amassing €144 million in net revenue (the category represents 12 per cent of Puig’s total revenue). The category’s performance was led by the conglomerate’s largest brand within the segment, dermatological skincare player Uriage, which debuted launches in April, including its Roséliane sensitive skin serum and Hyseac anti-blemish range.
Makeup continued to be a weak spot into the new year after sales fell 1.3 per cent in 2024. The category reported a 6 per cent decline to a net revenue of €165.3 million in Q1 (representing 14 per cent of the group’s total). On a call with investors, chief exec Puig explained that the softness was largely due to the replenishment of Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Filter Setting Spray, which landed at the end of February, later than expected. Dupes are also a continued sore spot for the category.
“We are still suffering or impacted by the effect on dupes, but we have a strategy in place to respond to the phenomenon, and throughout the year, we can expect the makeup category to improve progressively,” he said, with the group predicting makeup sales to rise in the low single digits in 2025. Charlotte Tilbury’s debut in Mexico and the Latin American market next month should prove fruitful in the upcoming second-quarter earnings, Puig added.
By region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) — which accounts for 53 per cent of Puig’s total revenue — rose 3.8 per cent compared with Q1 2024. However, Puig added on the call that he expects growth to slow in the region, especially in France, given softer consumer sentiment. The Americas (representing 37 per cent of group revenue) rose 11.8 per cent, achieving €451 million in net revenue, despite the ongoing geopolitical and macro environment. Fragrance continued to be the strongest category driver in the EMEA region, with Puig seeing this as an opportunity to double down on the category.
Asia-Pacific, which represents 9 per cent of Puig’s total revenue, delivered 13.2 per cent growth, totalling €111.1 million. Growth was driven by a strong regional performance in South Korea and Japan, where the group opened subsidiaries, and Byredo opened its flagship store in the latter in March. The conglomerate didn’t report on performance in China (the region represents a very small part of Puig s exposure), despite the region being an Achilles’ heel for all beauty conglomerates in 2024.
Puig is the second beauty conglomerate to report growth in Q1 2025, indicating the resilience of the beauty industry regardless of upheaval in the global market following President Trump’s tariffs and softening consumer sentiment (L’Oréal’s revenues also rose to 3.5 per cent in the quarter). But, growth has also been met with caution from both Puig and L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus, who each said changes to the macroenvironment will affect profit in upcoming quarters, especially regarding price increases and supply chain operations. Coty and Estée Lauder Companies will report their earnings on 7 May and 9 May, respectively.
As for tariffs and price increases, Puig had prepared and sent products to the US in advance to mitigate headwinds. But the company is bracing for further change. “Given that we have tried to prepare the scenario of tariffs for this year, we think that the impact that we may have will be compensated by the extra inventory we have in our US warehouses. We will also be implementing certain price increases during the year once the stocks are depleted,” said Puig. He added that low-single-digit price increases were expected to roll out through the year.
Despite the outlook factoring in the impact of US tariffs and moderate price increases aimed at protecting the bottom line, Puig is bullish: “Looking ahead, we maintain our 2025 outlook in spite of the challenging global macroeconomic environment,” he concluded.
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