Price increases, reduced costs and an optimisation of the product range give Henkel a strong growth in sales and profits. CEO Carsten Knobel sees the results as proof that the new strategy is paying off.
Rapid integration
The manufacturer of well-known brands such as Fa, Persil and Pritt achieved organic sales of 10.9 billion euros in the past six months, up 4.9 %. Operating profit even rose by 7.6 % to 1.3 billion euros. The strong figures are partly due to higher prices: the company managed to pass on higher raw material and logistics costs to its customers, but that is not the whole story.
The creation of a single Consumer Brands division, which merged the laundry and home care products divisions on the one hand and beauty care on the other, is also bearing fruit. That integration is going more smoothly than expected, the German company states. Henkel is also optimising its product portfolio, increasingly focusing on products with high margins and high growth potential.
Exit from Russia
“Overall, we are proud of the successful business performance in the first half of the year and the good progress we have made in implementing our strategic agenda – despite the continued difficult economic environment”, Knobel said, raising its outlook for the full financial year.
The company also reported that it had successfully completed the sale of its Russian division. In April, Henkel had already announced that it would leave Russia following the war in Ukraine, selling its operations there to a consortium of local investors. That deal is now complete: the sale price is 54 billion roubles (about 600 million euros).
