Beiersdorf: Workshop

The Asian region has been determined as focus region in the course of the last Beiersdorf Board strategy meeting. To get an idea of the current status, the Regional Controlling department has performed a review to provide an overview on sales and profitability. It turned out that the Japanese affiliate shows sales growth rates well below the other Asian countries. Profitability is on a constant, respectable level, however below the company’s target margin. The Japanese affiliate can hardly be compared to other BDF subsidiaries as it is a joint venture (called “NIVEA JV”). BDF holds 60%, the joint venture partner 40%. The joint venture partner is a big Japanese company, which is present in the Japanese Cosmetics & Toiletries (C&T) market, too. In the context of the weak sales performance and the increasing pressure on profitability, the Board decided to conduct a strategy review for the Japanese joint venture. The strategy review is designed to answer the following question:

What are potential measures to promote stronger sales growth and
to increase profitability in the Japanese cosmetics market?