Research. Develop. Market.

Perfecting Our Ideas: Our Strong Brands. We generate a substantial portion of our sales with products that were launched within the past five years. Our ongoing research and development activities are geared to launching innovative products and meeting consumers’ needs.

Innovation is our growth driver. It is what makes us stand out from a strong crowd, especially when compared with private label brands. Our innovations are based on our intensive research and development activities, which enable us to contribute our unique skills: 120 years’ experience of skin research, 100 years of emulsion technology know-how, and 120 years of knowledge in developing plasters.

In 2004, our research and development center in Hamburg was expanded to include a new 16,000 m² building. Total capital expenditure: €38 million. This means that we own Germany’s largest and most modern skin research center, allowing us to translate our outstanding achievements in research and development into innovative products even faster.

For example JUVENA: our long-term cooperation with the Laboratoire des Substituts Cutanés at the Hôpital Edouard Herriot in Lyon, France, resulted in a combination of skin-renewing active ingredients. It is based on the same technology that is also used to heal burned skin. This SKIN NOVA TECHNOLOGY makes the JUVEDICAL skin care range an outstanding innovation that substantially improves skin structure in a short space of time.

In addition to research and development, the right marketing is a key aspect of our brands’ success. We focus on ten strong brand families, where we are global leaders in all skin-related areas. The secret to our success lies in the “perfect local execution” of our uniform international strategy by our affiliates – for example by changing either the models or the language used in classic advertising campaigns. This means that our brands are often seen as local brands, as is the case with NIVEA in Mexico or 8x4 in Japan.

No matter what we do, we do it out of a responsibility to people. We call it “care for people.” We want to care for consumers with useful products that make them feel good. However, “care for people” also has a second dimension – our employees. After all, it is their passion and performance that form the basis of our success.