Henkel, the maker of brands including Persil and Loctite, has posted €909 million worth of profit in the second quarter of its financial year, an 11% increase on the same period last year.
The profit performance comes on top of 'significant nominal sales growth' for the business, of 9.6%, to €5.1 billion, including good organic growth of 2.2%. Sales were boosted by the acquisition of the Sun Products Corporation, which contributed 7.4% to its growth.
“Henkel delivered a strong performance in the second quarter, reaching new highs in quarterly sales, adjusted operating profit and EBIT margin as well as earnings per preferred share. All three business units contributed to this positive development,” said Henkel CEO Hans Van Bylen.
“Sales grew significantly to around 5.1 billion euros. We further improved our adjusted operating profit as well as our adjusted EBIT margin. Adjusted earnings per preferred share grew double-digit. This is a strong performance in a highly challenging market environment.”
Business Unit Performance
Across its divisions, Henkel's Adhesive Technologies business unit posted organic sales growth of 3.4%. In the Beauty Care business unit, 'organic sales were at the level of the prior-year quarter'. the company said, while its Laundry & Home Care business unit reported an organic sales increase of 2.1%.
In terms of regional performance, the Western Europe region reported a 'slightly negative organic sales growth' of -1.2%. Eastern Europe was up 5.2%, Africa/Middle East saw sales up 1.1%, North America was up 3.2%, Latin America was up 6.1% and Asia Pacific was up 4.8%.
'The emerging markets again made an above-average contribution to the organic growth of the Group, showing a very strong increase in organic sales of 4.7 percent,' the company said in a statement. 'The mature markets registered positive organic sales growth of 0.5 percent.'
Looking ahead to the coming year, Henkel said that it 'expects to generate organic sales growth of 2 to 4 percent and anticipates that each business unit will generate organic sales growth within this range'.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
