Henkel, the owner of the Schwarzkopf haircare range and several well-known cleaning and adhesive brands, saw its group sales increase organically by 6.6% to €5.6bn during the first quarter of 2023. This was driven by a 12.0% increase in prices, which was offset by a 5.4% decline in volumes as consumer demand weakened.
In the firm’s Consumer Brands unit, organic sales rose 7.0% to €2.77bn whilst volumes slipped 5.7%. The laundry and home care segment of this unit generated organic sales growth of 6.3%, with laundry care boosted by a good performance in the fabric cleaning category and a double-digit increase in the fabric care category. The home care business was driven by a double-digit sales increase in the dishwashing category. Meanwhile, organic sales growth in the hair business area was 9.9%,
In the Adhesive Technologies division, sales were up 6.8% to €2.79bn, but volumes fell 4.6%.
CEO Carsten Knobel commented: “We had a good start to the year – despite a continuously challenging market environment. The very strong sales increase in both business units underlines the strength of our portfolio of successful brands and innovative technologies. In the first quarter, we continued our pricing measures to further compensate for the headwinds from raw material and logistics costs.”
For the full year, Henkel has forecast organic sales growth in the range of 1-3% for both business units.
Adjusted EBIT margin is expected to range between 10% and 12%, with the performance of Adhesive Technologies ranging between 13% and 15%, and Consumer Brands between 7.5% and 9.5%.
Knobel concluded: “Today, we affirmed our guidance for 2023, and, based on the very strong organic sales development in the first quarter, we are looking at the current fiscal year with confidence.”
