Aug 4 (Reuters) – * Q2 sales 1.495 bln eur vs Rtrs poll avg 1.48 bln

* Q2 adj EBIT 183 mln eur vs poll avg 172 mln

* Sees slight increase in 2011 sales

* Shares rise over 5 percent

(Adds CEO comment, shares, Tesa unit)

By Victoria Bryan

FRANKFURT, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Beiersdorf reported a return to growth at its core consumer division in the second quarter as a massive marketing drive to entice customers back to its Nivea skincare brand took effect.

DUESSELDORF (Reuters) – Metro (MEOG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s No.4 retailer, said it was getting harder to meet its full-year profit target as the global economic recovery falters and shoppers fret about the European debt crisis and higher food prices.

The German group, which runs cash and carry wholesale outlets, hypermarkets, electricals shops and department stores, missed forecasts on Tuesday with an 8 percent drop in second-quarter underlying earnings.

That was mainly due to losses at its Media Markt Saturn (MMS) electricals arm, as flagged at an investor day last week, as shoppers cut back on discretionary purchases and the firm lowered prices to compete with online rivals.

Metro reiterated its target to grow full-year profit by 10 percent to about 2.66 billion euros ($3.8 billion), helped by a plan to slash costs at MMS and to accelerate growth online.

However, it said this would depend on the continuation of an increasingly shaky economic recovery.

“The risk-reward profile has adversely changed,” it said.

Europe’s retailers are having a tough time as shoppers are squeezed by rising prices, subdued wages growth and government austerity measures.

FRANKFURT, July 28 (Reuters) – Lufthansa joined other airlines in reporting results battered by high fuel costs, and said capacity would not grow as quickly as previously planned over the winter.

Fuel costs soared 24.6 pct to 3 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in the first half, Lufthansa said in its interim report on Thursday.

However, it has reduced its forecast for expected fuel expense in 2011 by 100 million euros to 6.4 billion, according to presentation slides.

While air travel has picked up after the 2008/2009 global downturn, fuel costs, political unrest and a drop in traffic caused by the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami are causing headaches for airlines across the world.

Late on Wednesday Air France-KLM posted a 212 million euro quarterly net loss, while over in the U.S., shares in Delta Air Lines fell to a year low after it said fuel costs grew at a higher rate than revenue.

Shares in Lufthansa were down 3.4 percent at 0749 GMT, among the biggest fallers on the blue-chip DAX index . Air-France plummeted 8.5 percent in Paris.

Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Kuhn said Lufthansa’s first-half results fell short of his and consensus expectations.

FRANKFURT, July 26 (Reuters) – German sportswear maker Puma chalked up record sales in the second quarter, as consumers across Asia and Latin America stocked up on running shoes with the jumping cat logo.

Sportswear has rebounded strongly from the global recession, with the big name brands of Nike , Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Puma all reporting robust demand this year.

Puma, whose shoes are worn by the world’s fastest sprinter Usain Bolt, confirmed its target to grow sales to more than 3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) this year.

It said it still expected profit to rise by a mid single-digit percentage, despite higher raw material and wage costs, with the gross margin to remain at around last year’s level in the second half.

As a result, customers can expect to see prices rise from the fourth-quarter onwards and into the first half of 2012. New Chief Executive Franz Koch told journalists some products could see price increases of up to 10 percent.

Larger rivals Nike and Adidas have also warned of higher costs and announced price rises for their products.

Shares in Puma were up 0.8 percent at 0817 GMT, outperforming a 0.9 percent fall in the mid-cap index .

FRANKFURT, July 26 (Reuters) – Group earnings at German retailer Metro AG will not be affected by a weaker than expected second quarter at its electronic goods division MediaMarkt-Saturn (MMS), it said on Tuesday.

“Except for Media-Saturn, all sales divisions of Metro Group are within market expectations,” Finance Director Olaf Koch said in a statement on Tuesday as the group reaffirmed its forecast of a rise of around 10 percent in its full-year profit before special items.

To improve trading at MMS, Europe’s largest electricals retailer, Metro will seek acquisitions and start sales via the Saturn website in October, with the mediamarkt.de website to follow in January 2012.

It expects the division’s fortunes will improve in the second half and is targeting online sales of 5 billion euros ($7.2 billion) by 2015.

The comments boosted its battered shares, which have lost 30 percent this year on fears of poor trading, and were up 2.3 percent at 0759 GMT, the best performer on the German bluechip index .

“What’s having a positive effect on the shares is that Metro confirmed earnings guidance and expects a better performance for MMS in the second half,” BHF Bank analyst Peter Steiner said. “However we await the presentation this afternoon for information on how this will be achieved.”

MMS rivals Dixons Retail and Kesa Electricals have warned on trading this year and there are signs that consumers in Germany, which saw a bumper recovery at the start of the year, are holding back too.

FRANKFURT, July 19 (Reuters) – Sportswear group Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is confident of meeting its guidance for 2011 its chief executive told Reuters, in spite of concerns that rising material costs could affect the sector.

“I am confident we will deliver another year of strong financial performance in line with the guidance we have provided for the full year 2011,” Herbert Hainer said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Tuesday.

Shares in Adidas had fallen more than 4 percent on Tuesday as traders cited concerns that the company’s second quarter had been weak.

They pared losses after the comments from Hainer, closing down 3 percent at 53.58 euros. Local rival Puma closed down 1.3 percent.

Adidas shares have been trading at record highs this year, reaching 57.62 euros on Monday.

Hainer said the movement in the group’s share price over the last two days was “purely driven by speculation”.

Adidas is due to report second-quarter results on Aug 4. It has raised its sales outlook twice this year and sees 2011 sales growing by a high single-digit percentage.

FRANKFURT, July 15 (Reuters) – Lufthansa became the first airline to use biofuels on regular commercial flights on Friday in a six month trial that it estimates will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes during the period.

European airlines are pressing ahead with biofuel plans in order to cut use of regular jet fuel. A pact signed last month with biofuel producers and the EU Commission aims to produce 2 million tonnes of biofuel for aviation by 2020.

Lufthansa is using a mix of regular fuel and biofuel made by Neste Oil from jatropha and camelina crops and animal fats, in one engine of an Airbus plane on daily flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg.

It said on Friday the aim of the trial, along with reducing emissions, was to examine the effects of biofuel on engines.

Passengers on the flights will not see, feel or hear any difference in the aircraft, Lufthansa biofuels director Joachim Buse told Reuters at the Paris Air Show in June.

Robert Wall, international editor at Aviation Week and a passenger on the first bio-fuelled flight, said the plane departed from Hamburg to a water cannon salute.

“Niko Pointner, the LH A321 captain, said everything was completely normal,” Wall said, adding the captain had told passengers Friday’s inaugural flight was expected to save 1 metric tonne of CO2.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Chinese demand for premium brands will help luxury stocks continue to outperform even in the face of a shaky U.S. recovery, inflation in Asia and peripheral Europe’s debt crisis, a Pictet fund manager said.

“The potential of China remains huge,” Laurent Belloni, manager of the Pictet Premium Brands fund, which manages assets worth around 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), told Reuters.

He cited the growing number of billionaires there and the emergence of the “increasingly sophisticated and well-educated” middle class.

He said issues such as the debt crisis in Europe and one-off shocks like the Japan earthquake tend to hit sentiment only briefly and that demand for established European and American premium brands shows no sign of slowing.

“We are definitely concerned, but not worried. We have been facing a lot of these issues for a while now,” he said, adding that the fund has always rebounded quickly from any dips and outperformed the benchmark index.

Tapping into the growth story of the wider luxury goods sector, the fund has posted cumulative returns of more than 6 percent year-to-end-June, outperforming its benchmarks, the MSCI World Consumer Discretionary Index which is up about 2 percent, Belloni said.

Top holdings include LVMH, Richemont, Tiffany, Burberry, Swatch, Polo Ralph Lauren, Estee Lauder, Starwood Hotels, Christian Dior and BMW.

* Company eyes under-30s market with new campaign

* Implemented price rises in response to cotton costs

By Victoria Bryan

BERLIN, July 7 (Reuters Life!) – Levi Strauss will attempt to tap into the revolutionary spirit of the “Arab Spring” with a “Go Forth” global marketing campaign aimed at attracting youthful customers back to a jeans brand that was once one of the most coveted in the world.

Fed up with high unemployment, rising food prices and repression, popular uprisings led mainly by young people overthrew governments in Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year. Libyan rebels are attempting to overthrow ruler Muammar Gaddafi, while protests and demonstrations have rocked governments in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and swept across other parts of North Africa and the Middle East.

“We’ve always been about embodying the energy and events of our times and this campaign is about returning to the pioneering spirit of the brand,” Robert Hanson, Global President of the Levi’s brand told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.

He said change in the Middle East has been enabled by borderless communication and the kind of young people that the Levi’s brand would like to be embraced by.

FRANKFURT, July 1 (Reuters) – Growing fears over the strength of Germany’s consumer recovery could hamper efforts by Metro (MEOG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), the country’s largest listed retailer, to offload its Kaufhof department stores and Real hypermarkets.

Metro has long been looking for a way out of its Kaufhof and Real businesses to focus on opprtunities offered by emerging markets at its cash & carry and MediaMarkt-Saturn electronics businesses.

Disposals are now back on the agenda after the group said it was in informal talks over their future. [ID:nLDE75Q0G6]

The biggest problem when it comes to finding a buyer is the two units’ exposure to their home market. Kaufhof is virtually unheard of outside of Germany, while Real gets two thirds of its sales from Germany.

While Germany is Europe’s strongest economy, it does not offer the growth rates of emerging markets such as Russia and China, where Metro is driving expansion of its cash & carry outlets and MediaMarkt-Saturn stores.

In addition, German retailers’ good start to the year may be losing steam. Despite low unemployment and predicted economic growth of 3.3 percent this year, retail sales fell unexpectedly in May, though economists said an E.coli outbreak that led to a drop in food sales was a major factor. [ID:nLDE75T08M]

One banking source said Metro was looking at floating Kaufhof due to a lack of suitable buyers, adding an initial public offering would take many months.