Monday, Jul 23, 2007    Text size: 

After lagging sales in 2006, Beate Uhse said it will spend up to $7 million this year to update its stores and offer "more fashionable products" that cater toward a sexual lifestyle — an attempt to appeal to women and couples.

Beate Uhse runs 330 stores located throughout Europe, including Germany and The Netherlands.

Beate Uhse CFO Otto Christian Lindemann said that he foresees a "big shakeout" in the European adult retail business. Most of these shops' sales depend on DVD sales, he said, and with the explosion of online adult retail, he predicts many of those shops will close.

"In the future we'll still have DVDs but not that many," Lindemann said, adding that offering branded products like energy drinks and lingerie are a way to make up for lagging DVD sales.

One of Beate Uhse's most recent forays into the sexual lifestyle business is what Lindemann called "love bags," which are filled with lubricant, vibrators, edible body paint and other sexy-but-subtle products.

Lindemann said the bags, which feature names such as One-Night and Sexplorer, are meant to make sex more fun and exciting.

Beate Uhse also has redesigned the stores' floor plans, which are divided into four sections. Massage oils and lubricants are closer to the entrance, he said, and lingerie, DVDs and "harder stuff" — dildos, fetish wears and handcuffs — fill the other three.

"We're in really good shape to have good figures in the future because the infrastructure is set up," Lindemann said. "2007 will be a year of transition. At the end of the day, whatever new direction we take, we want to earn money. Selling erotica is different than selling porn. And we are going to do it right."