L’Occitane has confirmed the figures released in a trading update at October’s close with the announcement of its interim results for the first half of fiscal 2018. Sales were up 1.1 percent at constant rates (down 0.6 percent at actual rates) to reach €548.2 million. Like-for-like sales increased 2.3 percent.

However, profit fell sharply, with operating profit down 28.9 percent and net profit diving 59.4 percent to €10.7 million. The natural cosmetics company attributed the drop to ‘unfavourable exchange rates, one-off effects and strong seasonality’.

The company was keen to point out that its performance in the first half is not indicative of its annual results, as L’Occitane’s strong holiday and gifting image means sales are positively skewed towards the third quarter.