205-year-old beauty retailer closes 31 stores, warns of more

205-year-old beauty retailer closes 31 stores, warns of more

Fernanda Tronco

Sat, August 15, 2026 at 10:13 PM GMT+3 4 min read

A major beauty retailer is pulling back on its physical expansion after years of growing its store network. Weaker sales and fierce price competition are forcing the company to reconsider how many locations it needs.

The shift comes as online shopping continues to reshape the beauty retail market and consumers remain highly sensitive to prices. The retailer has already closed dozens of stores this fiscal year, and management says it will continue scrutinizing locations based on profitability and customer traffic.

Founded in 1821, Douglas Group is a German-based international beauty retailer that operates about 1,970 stores across Europe, as well as several e-commerce platforms, spanning multiple brands, including Douglas, Nocibé, Parfumdreams, and Niche Beauty.

Douglas closes 31 stores

Douglas Group closed 31 stores in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, significantly more than the 12 locations it shuttered during the same period a year earlier.

The company has been moderating the pace of its store expansion while shifting more investment toward e-commerce and technology. It is also evaluating its existing store network based on profitability and customer traffic.

Douglas has not announced a specific number of additional stores that will close. However, CEO Sander van der Laan said the company will continue reviewing locations as it adjusts its physical footprint to changing customer behavior.

"We are making adjustments to align our business even more closely with the development at both customer and market level, with an increased focus on e-com and a stricter assessment of the profitability of our store network, and that will lead to a number of conclusions and decisions," said van der Laan during the company's latest earnings call.

The company said it will continue opening stores selectively, particularly in Eastern Europe, while modernizing locations in Western Europe. But it expects the balance between physical stores and e-commerce to shift further as customers increasingly shop online.

Why Douglas is closing locations

Douglas' store strategy comes after a period of significant expansion as the beauty retailer faces a more challenging environment in some of its largest markets.

Germany, France, and the Netherlands account for about 60% of Douglas' business, but the company said consumer demand for premium beauty was lower year over year in Germany and the Netherlands and flat in France during the latest quarter. Meanwhile, Central Eastern Europe continued to perform more strongly.

Price competition is also weighing on the business. Douglas said consumers remain highly price-sensitive, particularly in its mature markets, while competition has become increasingly aggressive.

"The competition for share of wallet is fierce," said van der Laan in the company's third quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings report.

In response, Douglas is reviewing its pricing strategy and shifting investment toward its digital offering and broader omnichannel shopping experience.

The company also expects e-commerce to play a larger role in its business. E-commerce sales accounted for 32.7% of total group sales during the nine months of fiscal 2025/26, compared with 33.1% a year earlier, while e-commerce sales increased 2.3%.

That shift does not mean Douglas is abandoning physical stores. Instead, the company is becoming more selective about where it invests.

Douglas said it will continue opening locations in markets with stronger growth potential while refurbishing existing stores where the investment makes sense. In Western Europe, however, it expects to further adjust the balance between physical and digital sales to reflect changing consumer traffic.

Douglas faces declines

The store closures come as Douglas' latest financial results show pressure across much of the business.

During the third quarter of fiscal 2026, Douglas reported:

• Group sales declined 2% year over year to €987.8 million

• Like-for-like group sales fell 4.5%

• Like-for-like store sales decreased 6.5%

• Like-for-like e-commerce sales dropped 1%

• Adjusted EBITDA was down 19.4%

The weakness was concentrated in several of Douglas' largest markets. Sales in the company's DACHNL segment, which includes Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, declined 2.8% during the quarter, while France fell 2.1%. Central Eastern Europe, by comparison, posted 4.4% growth.

The results reflect a broader challenge for Douglas, where online shopping is becoming increasingly important, but simply moving sales online has not eliminated competitive pressure. E-commerce sales decreased slightly during the quarter, although the company said digital sales excluding Parfumdreams and Niche Beauty increased 0.6%.

At the same time, some parts of Douglas' omnichannel strategy are performing well. Cross-channel services such as Click & Collect Express grew 18.2% during the quarter, while the company's exclusive brands posted double-digit sales growth.

Here's some of my previous coverage on beauty retail closures:

Douglas is therefore attempting to reshape its business rather than simply shrink it.

The company said it will focus on e-commerce, exclusive products and omnichannel services while keeping a close eye on the profitability of its physical locations.

For now, Douglas has confirmed its full-year fiscal 2025/26 guidance, but the latest results show why its store network is under greater scrutiny. With store sales falling faster than e-commerce and consumer demand remaining uneven across Europe, the retailer is positioning itself for a business increasingly built around digital shopping and a more selective physical footprint.

Related: 79-year-old fast-fashion retailer closes 128 stores

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.