Spanish fashion and fragrance company Puig reported a 14.3 percent rise in fourth-quarter sales on Thursday, beating analyst expectations for the key holiday period.
The Barcelona-based company behind perfume brands Rabanne, Carolina Herrera and Jean Paul Gaultier said net sales for the three months to Dec. 31 were 1.36 billion euros ($1.42 billion), above the 1.30 billion euro average forecast from analysts polled by LSEG.
Puig, which generates most of its revenue from fragrance sales, is heavily reliant on the holiday season, with analysts estimating that nearly half of its prestige perfumes are sold in the quarter that includes Black Friday and Christmas.
The company, which also owns luxury skincare and make-up brands Byredo and Charlotte Tilbury, said full-year sales reached 4.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion), up 11 percent from 2023, surpassing its goal of increasing sales faster than the 6-7 percent forecast for the global premium beauty market.
The average of analyst estimates was for sales of 4.72 billion euros in 2024, given that it is less exposed to sluggish demand in China and that more than half of Puig’s revenue comes from Europe, the Middle East and Africa while 18 percent comes from the United States.
The 2024 performance of larger rivals such as Estée Lauder and L’Oréal was hampered by muted demand from China, where a property crisis and high youth unemployment have curbed consumer spending.
Puig said sales in its core fragrance and fashion business grew by 21 percent in the holiday quarter.
Sales in the make-up division fell 7.2 percent, with its Charlotte Tilbury brand affected by a voluntary withdrawal of select batches of Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray in December over what Puig described as “an isolated quality issue in a limited number of batches” detected during routine product testing.
Reporting by Corina Pons; Editing by David Latona and David Goodman
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Puig Shares Drop After Withdrawal of Some Batches of Charlotte Tilbury Spray
Shares in Puig dropped sharply in early Friday trade after the luxury beauty and fashion company said its Charlotte Tilbury brand was voluntarily withdrawing select batches of its make-up setting spray.
