Douglas scores points in the pandemic with its online shop

At Germany’s largest perfumery chain, Douglas, the Christmas business has not been bad so far, despite the corona-related restrictions. “We are so far satisfied and hope that it stays that way,” said a company spokesman on Tuesday. The 2G rule in Germany is burdening the branch business, but as in the past few months this is partly offset by the growing e-commerce business. However, the group is still struggling with red numbers.

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At Germany’s largest perfumery chain, Douglas, the Christmas business has not been bad so far, despite the corona-related restrictions. “We are so far satisfied and hope that it stays that way,” said a company spokesman on Tuesday. The 2G rule in Germany is burdening the branch business, but as in the past few months this is partly offset by the growing e-commerce business. However, the group is still struggling with red numbers.

In the 2020/21 financial year, which ended at the end of September, the chain’s sales were almost at the previous year’s level at EUR 3.1 billion, despite the month-long lockdown. Thanks to an increase in sales of almost 50 percent to 1.2 billion euros in online retail, the perfumery chain was able to largely offset the pandemic-related decline in branch business of around 19 percent. In the fourth quarter – between July and September – Douglas also benefited from the reopening of the branches and increased sales by 7.3 percent to 727 million euros. Douglas is developing “better than the overall market,” said company boss Tina Müller.

The operating result – adjusted Ebitda – was, however, 19 percent below the previous year’s level at 222 million euros. The bottom line was that the group even had to report a loss of 342 million euros, after a loss of 479 million euros in the previous year. Here, not least, the costs caused by the pandemic and the expenses for a number of branch closings made themselves felt, said the spokesman.

dpa

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