Shiseido Seen Logging Record Annual Net Loss of 52 B. Yen

Tokyo, Nov. 11 (Jiji Press)–Major Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. has said it expects to post a record group net loss of 52 billion yen in the year ending in December, due mainly to falling inbound demand and a slump in U.S. operations. The company’s previous net balance forecast for the current business year stood at 6 billion yen in profit. It now expects to log a net loss for the second straight year. In 2024, Shiseido incurred a consolidated net loss of about 10.8 billion yen. Shiseido also said Monday that about 200 jobs at the company and a subsidiary will be shed through a voluntary redundancy program, with applications to be accepted from Dec. 8 to 26. Costs related to the program, including additional retirement allowances, will total around 3 billion yen. In 2024, Shiseido cut about 1,500 jobs at a key unit through a voluntary retirement program. Earlier this year, about 300 employees were shed at a U.S. subsidiary. Shiseido also revised down its 2025 group operating balance forecast to a loss of 42 billion yen from a profit of 13.5 billion yen, and the sales projection to 965 billion yen from 995 billion yen. In the United States, sales of Shiseido’s Drunk Elephant brand skin care products are slumping. The company expects to book 46.8 billion yen in impairment loss related to its operations in the Americas. At a news conference in Tokyo on Monday, Shiseido President Kentaro Fujiwara said that “I seriously take” the expected record consolidated net loss. Still, he said, “We are now set to complete structural reforms,” adding that the company will focus on measures for promoting growth going forward. For January-September, Shiseido reported a group net loss of 43.9 billion yen, compared with the year-before net profit of 754 million yen, an operating loss of 33.3 billion yen, against a profit of 2.1 billion yen, and sales of 693.8 billion yen, down 4.0 pct year on year. Behind the disappointing results for the first three quarters of the current year were slowing consumption in China and the weakness in U.S. operations. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]