Puig revenues rose 6.1% to €1.3 billion in the third quarter, the company said on Thursday. The conglomerate’s nine-month revenues were up 7% to €3.6 billion.
“Puig has delivered another strong quarter demonstrating the consistent execution and resilience of our own portfolio in a dynamic market. These results reflect our consistent delivery, which we set out to achieve at the start of the year,” Puig CEO Marc Puig said on the earnings call. “These results reflect our discipline, management and the sustained desirability of our brands as we enter the most important trading period of the year, even as we lap a very strong Q3 from last year.”
All business were up in the third quarter. Fragrance and fashion revenues rose 2.8% to €932 million. This reflects the global normalization in the fragrance market, Puig told investors. Makeup was up 18.8% to €230 million, while skincare was up 10.5% to €135 million, supported by the success of Charlotte Tilbury skincare and Uriage.
By region, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) revenues rose 4.2% to €699 million, supported by strength in Derma and Charlotte Tilbury. Americas revenues were up 2.3% to €464 million. The US fashion and fragrance market remained healthy, despite noted softness in Latin America. Competitors have been shifting resources from Asia-Pacific to Latin America, Puig said, adding that the competitive environment has seen an impact on business due to Puig’s reluctance to play into the move. “It’s an area where we still hold a very strong position, our brands are top ranking in the area and we’re seeing how to respond to these dynamics.”
Asia-Pacific was a standout, with revenues up 35.8% to €134 million. It’s Puig’s smallest region, but the fastest growing. (Asia-Pacific now represents 10% of total revenue.) The company puts it down to successful brand activations in the region, the acceleration of its “niche” category (which includes Byredo and Penhaligon’s), strong momentum from Charlotte Tilbury and continued benefits from the consolidation of local subsidiaries.
In Q3, the expected normalization of the fragrance market came to fruition, Puig said. Even so, growth in niche fragrances is still up double digits year-on-year, he added. “It’s been more than 10 years that we’ve seen the niche category as the segment of the fragrance market that continues to grow faster than the overall category,” Puig said. “[It] continues to bring growth for the category by being, in our case, the engine of growth among the different brands that we have.”
