Economics - The Future of Weleda Is Now

On May 30,2026 Weleda held its annual general meeting. Strong growth, strong investments, and dynamic transformation were the topics discussed in the hall of the Carpentry Workshop at the Goetheanum.

Thomas Jorberg, Chairman of Weleda’s Board of Directors, opened the shareholders’ meeting by quoting the six principles of love formulated by the American educator Arleen Lorrance in 1970:

“Be the change you want to see happen, instead of trying to change anyone else. — Receive all people as beautiful exactly as they are. — Create your own reality consciously. — Provide others with opportunities to give. — Have no expectations, but rather abundant expectancy. — Problems are opportunities.”¹

With this final point, he drew a parallel to the present: In light of so many upheavals, Weleda today aims to be such an opportunity. Jorberg described the encouraging growth in the cosmetics sector that has been strengthening the Weleda brand. The outlook for Weleda’s pharmaceutical division, however, is less positive. COVID, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and the plant closure in France have also led to changes at Weleda. To cope with these external influences, Weleda needs to undergo more transformation than initially anticipated.

New Products for New Target Audiences

Unlike last year, the Board of Directors decided not to pay a dividend to shareholders this year and is leaving the matter open for the coming fiscal year. The annual financial statements were approved unanimously and Thomas Jorberg was re-elected as chairman of the board of directors for another three years. Justus Wittich, who until recently served as Treasurer of the Anthroposophical Society, then took the floor. He’s been following Weleda’s path for 14 years. As a cultural and academic institution, the Goetheanum relies on dividend distributions from Weleda and is therefore grateful for its economic success. Nevertheless, he said, for both the Goetheanum and Clinic Arlesheim, the goal is not the financial investment; it is, rather, to ensure the future of anthroposophic medicine.

Wittich noted that the executive board had been expanded to include Christian Brüchle, who will oversee finance, and Stefanie Häfele, who will oversee marketing and sales in the pharmaceutical sector. Tina Müller also began her report by addressing the topic of pharmaceuticals. Due to the lack of growth, the pharmaceuticals division will remain the focus in 2026. The Weleda brand is “stronger than ever,” and market research shows that the company is successfully appealing to younger target groups. Nevertheless, she acknowledged that the company had not achieved its projected profitability due to the decline in sales in the pharmaceutical sector and investments in cosmetics. Christian Brüchle continued the management report. He joined Weleda because, in addition to economic performance, sustainability and values-driven leadership also matter at Weleda. He has now been with the enterprise for half a year and can see that, while not everything always goes according to plan, Weleda’s strong values serve as a guiding light every day.

The pace of the current growth trajectory now needs to be extended across the entire company. Total revenue rose by 7.3 percent year-after-year on a currency-adjusted basis, which is very good. However, this has not yet been reflected in the bottom line. The return on sales (the portion of revenue that remains as profit) is very low at 2 percent. According to Brüchle, a key factor is reliability, which means a reduction of profit fluctuations. That is the goal: to reduce profit fluctuations. Cash flow was CHF 7.4 million higher than in the previous year and thus showed positive development, but it must increase significantly to provide more leeway for investments. The depreciation of the dollar had a negative impact of CHF 2 million on Weleda, which is why the company will establish a currency management system. Weleda’s equity ratio, according to Brüchle, is solid at 45.6 percent and reflects the company’s strong creditworthiness. The goal is to create a healthy cycle. It begins with organic revenue growth. Then, higher productivity and efficiency are necessary to become more profitable.

Beacons of Health

Mónica Mennet-von Eiff, head of Weleda’s research and development in the pharmaceuticals division, continued the presentation. Weleda’s vision is for anthroposophic pharmaceuticals to be a natural member of integrative medicine. The focus is now on “flagship products” in the areas of eye health, digestion, stress, and sleep. Where efficacy and evidence-based medicine are concerned, the discussion encompasses not only clinical randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind studies, but also the experience of physicians and the well-being and expectations of patients. Positive responses to the question “How does Amara work for patients with irritable stomach and irritable bowel syndrome?” led to the decision to invest more than 1 million CHF in a corresponding study this year. Mennet-von Eiff expects results next year. The goal is to demonstrate that Weleda has a presence in “regulatory medicine.”

Stefanie Häfele then spoke; she is new to the enterprise and oversees marketing and sales for medicinal products. Getting people excited about products is her passion. She described her role as translating the results of research so the general public can understand them. According to Häfele, the focus for marketing and sales remains on pharmacies. An online survey showed that customers are familiar with Weleda, but primarily associate the company with shower gel and baby care products. The goal is to expand brand awareness to also include medical products. She highlighted three key tasks, including strengthening research and “telling the story” of the pharmaceutical products. Additionally, she said, it is important to align marketing and communications with the sales strategy and to target audiences beyond the anthroposophical medical community. Launching this fall, the campaign for the brand-building initiative now being planned is called “From Nature’s Pharmacy.”

Sunflower for Skin Cells

Tina Müller brought up the topic of cosmetics. With 10.3 percent growth in the cosmetics sector, Weleda stands out as a “growth star” compared to the major corporations (L’Oréal: 3.5 percent, Beiersdorf: 0.9 percent). Innovation (i.e., new products) is the main driver of this growth, specifically with the blue gentian and edelweiss plants. With the “Swiss Natural Science” label, Weleda has positioned itself more strongly in Switzerland than before, reflecting the country’s nature-oriented image. Added to this are the Booster Serum Drops for the younger target audience. These are serums that can be mixed into other creams or applied directly to the face before day and night care products. Finally, in the high-end segment, she mentioned the Cell Longevity line for sale in perfume shops, featuring the currently much-discussed active ingredient NAD+. Weleda has found a way to naturally extract the active ingredient from sunflower sprouts. There is also the new promotional video featuring Maria Furtwängler played regularly on television and now has 1.4 million views on Weleda’s YouTube channel. “The future of my skin is now,” says the actress.² In the Carpentry Workshop at the Goetheanum the mood among shareholders and participants was reminiscent of 25 years ago when Weleda’s advertisements first appeared on German and Swiss ICE trains. Back then, it was friendly faces in the ads that brought the realization that Weleda needed to move beyond the niche it occupied. Jost Schieren, a representative from Alanus University, summarized it at a Goetheanum conference at the time: “We need to take anthroposophy from the bike path onto the main road.”

“Nature and Science”: Together, these two concepts are compelling, says Tina Müller. Another video clip followed of the booster serums for the 16- to 29-year-old target group, which saw 117 percent growth. It included the phrase “Drop it, mix it, boost it.”³ The word “Weleda” carries an English nuance at the end of the clip. The assembly laughed and applauded Müller when she used figures to show that the serum drops were the most successful product launch in the facial care market in 2025. She added that this product campaign would allow the company to present a new image to retailers. It would have a positive spillover effect on existing products. She then compared how heavily the individual brands advertise. Of all the advertising spending in this product category, Weleda accounted for 3 percent in 2023/24, the natural cosmetics company Lavera for 8 percent, and Nivea for 60 percent. By 2025, Weleda had increased its own share to 12 percent.

From Good Production to Good Sales

During the discussion, Ueli Hurter of the Weleda Board of Directors responded to questions regarding cosmetics versus pharmaceuticals. According to Hurter, it would be harmful to abandon hope of establishing a healthy market with the pharmaceutical division, which is currently incurring heavy losses. But that hope must be restored at the level of financial viability as well. He then emphasized the conviction of the two main shareholders, Clinic Arlesheim and the Anthroposophical Society: financial self-sufficiency must be achieved at the same time as Weleda contributes to the further development of the anthroposophic medical system. The solution to this issue lies neither in a purely quantitative nor a purely qualitative approach. It can be found if there is a genuine “will” to find it. More specifically, it is, of course, acceptable for funds to flow from the “big sister” of cosmetics to the “little sister” of pharmaceuticals. But this can´t remain at the scale it currently is. Hurter then justified the renewed effort to bring the pharmaceutical division out of the deep red with the conviction, “We have good products, but we’re not selling them well yet.” In addition, the industrial production of very small quantities is too costly, so manual production could also be a viable option here.

Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Wolfgang Held