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Düsseldorf (dpa) - Good business on the Internet, but massive sales losses in stores: The Corona crisis left clear marks on the balance sheet of the largest German perfumery chain Douglas in the Christmas business.
Overall, the sales of the beauty group fell in the first quarter of the 2020/21 financial year (October to December) by 9.3 percent to 1.2 billion euros, as the company announced on Friday in Düsseldorf.
The sales in the Europe-wide around 2,400 branches even collapsed by 28.8 percent to 736 million euros.
Here Douglas suffered not least from the lockdown in the second half of December, traditionally the time with the highest sales for the perfumery chain.
But Douglas was able to make up for a large part of the sales losses in the stationary business with its flourishing online shops.
Overall, the perfumery chain increased Internet sales in the Christmas quarter by 74 percent to 433 million euros.
In Germany, the share of e-commerce in business even rose to over 50 percent for the first time between October and December.
Across the group, it was 37 percent.
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Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) fell by 19.2 percent to 177 million euros.
The quarterly profit was 148 million euros.
Group boss Tina Müller emphasized that Douglas had learned from the experience of the first Corona wave and was gaining momentum in online trading.
After the perfumery chain made more than a billion euros in sales on the Internet for the first time in the 2020 calendar year, the goal is now "to reach the 2 billion euros in e-commerce as quickly as possible," said Vanessa Stützle, the manager responsible for digital business.
To this end, Douglas now wants to roll out its online marketplace, which is successful in Germany, Austria and France, internationally.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210226-99-603392 / 2
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