The DAX group presented its quarterly figures on Monday.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf The consumer goods group Henkel is more pessimistic about the full year 2021 due to high raw material and transport costs. The Düsseldorf Dax group only expects a result at the lower end of its forecast. The manufacturer of Persil, Pattex and Pritt announced this on Monday morning.
Henkel continues to expect organic sales growth of six to eight percent for 2021. The adjusted return on sales (EBIT margin) should, however, only be around 13.5 percent. So far, Henkel had predicted 13.5 to 14.5 percent, at the beginning of the year even up to 15 percent.
“In particular, the further sharp rise in raw material prices and logistics costs is putting a greater strain on the economy than previously assumed,” CEO Carsten Knobel is quoted as saying in a corporate statement. “We are working intensively with extensive measures to limit the impact on our business and profitability.”
Henkel competitor Beiersdorf also recently assumed organic sales growth of between eight and ten percent – and thus less than forecast by analysts.
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Henkel’s sales grew nominally by 3.7 percent in the first nine months – and now stand at 15 billion euros. The organic growth adjusted for exchange rate effects and acquisitions and sales is 3.5 percent and thus somewhat higher than the average forecast by analysts. In the third quarter just ended, Henkel grew nominally by 1.9 percent.
All corporate divisions are back above the pre-crisis level. But the individual branches have developed differently. The business of Henkel and its around 52,000 employees is based on three pillars: the Adhesive Technologies division, the Laundry & Home Care division, and the Beauty Care division.
Henkel benefits from the adhesives business
The most recent growth driver was the adhesives business, which grew by seven percent. With this strongly cyclical division, Henkel generates almost half of its group sales. The turnover in this area is now 2.4 billion euros.
Henkel benefited from rising demand for packaging and consumer goods, for example. Growth was slowed down by the automotive industry. The decline in production due to the global shortage of semiconductors had a negative impact here.
The Laundry & Home division had sales of almost 1.7 billion euros in the third quarter – almost two percent more. In the laundry detergents business area, Henkel achieved growth with its core brand Persil. In contrast, the demand for surface cleaners fell. This has returned to normal after increasing at the beginning of the pandemic. Laundry & Home accounts for a third of Henkel’s sales.
The sales of the cosmetics division fell organically by three percent to 0.9 billion euros. Henkel explains this with a normalization in demand for soap products, which had increased in the same period of the previous year due to the pandemic. The hairdressing business, which Henkel supplies with brands such as Schwarzkopf, continued its previous growth in the third quarter. The cosmetics division accounts for around a fifth of sales.
In the past year, Henkel still posted declines
Last year, Henkel still posted declines in sales and operating income during the corona crisis. At that time, the adhesives business in particular suffered from the weakness of important customers such as the automotive industry. But business with hairdressers was also not going well because salons were temporarily closed.
The Henkel share has fallen by twelve percent in the past twelve months, with major fluctuations. Most recently, a share cost a good 80 euros.
More: Henkel boss: “We haven’t always invested enough in innovations.”