Henkel, the maker of Loctite glue and Schwarzkopf hair products, has said that its sales for the first nine months of the year have exceeded the €15 billion mark for the first time.
Sales for the 9M period went up by 9.3%, to €15.14 billion. Organic sales, excluding foreign-exchange effects and acquisitions/divestments, went up by 3.1%, while EBIT rose by 10.5%, to €2.66 billion over the first three quarters of the year.
Third-Quarter Performance
In terms of the third quarter, specifically, Henkel posted a 3.0% organic sales increase, to €4.98 billion. Nominal sales grew by 4.9%, with foreign-exchange movements having a -4.2% effect on sales and acquisitions and divestments accounting for 6.1% of sales growth.
“In an increasingly challenging environment, we further improved sales and earnings,” said Henkel CEO Hans Van Bylen. “All three business units contributed to this positive development. We delivered strong organic sales growth of 3%, while nominal sales grew around 5%.
“We achieved a significant increase in adjusted EBIT, and our adjusted EBIT margin reached a new high, of 18%. We delivered significant growth in adjusted earnings per preferred share. In addition, we successfully closed three acquisition projects, which will substantially strengthen our business portfolio,” Van Bylen continued.
Unit Growth
The group’s Adhesive Technologies business unit posted organic sales growth of 4.9% in the quarter (+4.6% in 9M), Beauty Care posted organic sales growth of 0.5% in the quarter (+0.9% in 9M), and Laundry & Home Care posted organic sales growth of 1.8% (+2.2% in 9M).
For the full 2017 fiscal year, Van Bylen said, “We continue to expect organic sales growth of 2-4% on group level and an increase of our adjusted EBIT margin to more than 17%. For adjusted earnings per preferred share, we now expect an increase of around 9%.”
Looking ahead to the coming year, however, he noted that currency effects and a volatile market are likely to impact the business.
“The difficult conditions in the consumer-goods markets are likely to persist,” Van Bylen said. “We are fully committed to continue our successful development and implement our strategic priorities.”
© 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.
