Beiersdorf recoups all Trump-era tariff payments as Nivea sales slide

Beiersdorf has received refunds on every dollar of tariffs it paid under US President Donald Trump's 2025 levy hikes, a recovery that CFO Astrid Hermann confirmed is already lifting the group's year-to-date profit and loss. The disclosure came in the German consumer giant's third-quarter 2026 trading update, presented by CEO Vincent Warnery and Hermann on 27 October.

The quarter itself was mixed. Group net sales declined 1.3% to €2.4bn for the three months ended September 2026. Nivea sales slumped 4.9%, weighed down by sell-in headwinds. The company's derma category, anchored by Eucerin and Aquaphor, offset the lagging performance of its flagship mass brand.

The takeaway for watchers of the Hamburg group: the P&L relief from tariff refunds is real but largely a timing artefact, while the top-line softness sits squarely at Nivea.

How did the tariff refunds come about?

Trump announced the original tariffs in April 2025 as part of his so-called "Liberation Day" and implemented them from August that year. In October 2025, judges at the US Supreme Court ruled that the emergency-powers levies were unlawful, blocking them.

The ruling triggered repayments. "We have received refunds of all the previously paid tariffs for all of our brands, so that is benefiting our year-to-date profit and loss (P&L) for sure," Hermann said during the investor call. She noted the cash did not all arrive in the third quarter: "[Not all of the tariff refunds were paid] in Q3, as we even had some of those refunds happening earlier in the year."

The fiscal relief is temporary by construction. In response to the court's decision, Trump imposed a new global tariff of 10% on imports into the United States and has said he intends to raise the rate to 15%. Hermann confirmed the group is absorbing those costs now: "We are obviously also paying tariffs ongoing based on the new tariff environment, so that is happening as well."

For procurement and finance teams at beauty suppliers, the pattern is straightforward: a one-off refund cushion in 2026, followed by a permanent 10% — possibly 15% — duty line on US-bound goods.

What about the Middle East conflict?

Reuters financial reporter Cian Muenster pressed management on how elevated oil prices and Middle East supply chain disruptions are affecting costs and deliveries.

Hermann was candid about internal strain but clear on outcomes. "I would certainly suggest that it has caused quite a bit of headache to our teams, particularly in the supply chain," she said. "[However], I would say first of all that we are not seeing significant impacts in terms of disruption of our supply chains; we have found ways around them."

The most immediate consequence has been higher logistics costs. The bigger risk sits further out. "An oil price above US$100 for a longer period of time could cause significant pressure upwards in terms of our cost," Hermann cautioned, while adding that "so far, that has been managed quite well by our teams."

For planners, the message is that rerouting has absorbed the disruption so far, but a sustained breach of the US$100 oil mark remains the threshold at which input-cost pressure would become structural.

Why does the US business face limited exposure?

Hermann explained that the group's North American footprint has shielded it from much of the tariff pain felt by competitors. "A lot of our production, to be honest, for our US business is either happening in the US or in our Mexican site, which is still part of the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), we have had a pretty insubstantial impact compared to many others," she said.

That is a localisation story other multinationals have copied since 2025, and one Beiersdorf can now quantify in refunds received rather than duties avoided.

Why is Beiersdorf still in Russia?

Ulrike Dauer, a reporter for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, asked management to justify the group's continued presence in Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Warnery's answer framed the decision as brand defence, nothing more.

"[We] have been in Russia since 1906," he said. "We know that if we had left Russia, somebody else could have produced Nivea without us. So, we are there to protect the brand and to pay the salaries of our employees. Nothing more. Nothing less."

A 120-year market presence, in other words, is being held in place by trademark risk rather than commercial ambition.

What to watch next

The next data points that will determine whether this quarter's pattern holds: whether Nivea's sell-in headwinds reverse in the fourth quarter, whether Trump acts on his stated intent to lift the 10% global tariff to 15%, and whether Brent stays below the US$100 threshold Hermann flagged as the trigger for material cost pressure.