Nivea

A blue tin of cream from Hamburg that has barely changed its recipe, its colour or its lettering in a century.

Big name·Global·Founded 1911·Members

At a glance

Founded: NIVEA Creme was introduced in 1911, and NIVEA had been a registered trademark since 1905.²
Founded by: Oscar Troplowitz, who had taken over Paul C. Beiersdorf's Hamburg company in 1890, working with the chemist Isaac Lifschütz and the dermatologist Paul Gerson Unna.²
Home: Hamburg. Beiersdorf built a factory in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel in 1892 and the headquarters is still on that site.⁴
Owned by: Beiersdorf AG, a listed company in which the maxingvest group holds 54.4 per cent of the shares.⁶
What it sells: Mass-market skin and body care, with face care, body care and deodorants as the main lines.⁷¹⁴
Size: Sales of €5.5 billion in 2025, on organic growth of 0.9 per cent.⁷

How it got here

1882

1 of 3

The patent for the manufacture of coated pflaster, numbered 20057, is granted in Berlin on 28 March.² It was issued to the pharmacist Paul C. Beiersdorf, and the company treats it as its founding document.²

Beiersdorf: Milestones ↗

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Sources for what is above

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