1. Executive Summary
Nivea (owned by German consumer goods group Beiersdorf) is the textbook example of growth-through-stretching: a single 1911 skin cream extended, category by category, into a portfolio spanning face care, body care, deodorants, sun care, men’s grooming, lip care, and more. By 2024, Nivea alone generated roughly €5.6 billion ($6.4 billion) in sales — Beiersdorf’s best-performing brand and a key driver of the group’s record €9.9 billion in total revenue — across a portfolio that today spans close to 100 core products globally, alongside sibling brands (Eucerin, Aquaphor, Labello, La Prairie) that let the group stretch further still, into medical-grade dermatology and prestige beauty.
When Nivea’s own growth slowed sharply in 2025 amid a softer global mass-market skincare environment, Beiersdorf didn’t retreat from the stretching strategy — it recalibrated it, rebalancing investment across categories within Nivea itself while continuing to invest aggressively in the higher-margin Derma tier. This is a live example of “different strategies for different tiers within one house of brands.”