Sales Down at Shiseido

Shiseido's net sales for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2012 slipped 1.2% to $6.06 billion (484.79 billion yen), according to reports.

Net profit fell 21% to $57.06 million (4.56 billion yen), while operating income also saw declines at 65.8% to $114.48 million (9.15 billion yen).

The company said its margins suffered on lower domestic sales and higher promotional spending. In Japan, sales in Shiseido's domestic cosmetics business decreased 3.2% to $3.15 billion (252.05 billion yen), according to reports. However, global cosmetic sales rose slightly at 0.8% to $2.82 billion (225.62 billion yen).

According to reports, global sales of Shiseido and Nars cosmetics were solid, as well as the fragrance business in Europe, but sales were affected by weak demand in China, due to restrained purchasing attitudes toward Japanese products.

Shiseido said it is continuing to see weak international sales in the fourth quarter, so it cut its forecasts for the full year ending March 31.