German consumer goods company Henkel expects sales to pick up again this year as hairdressers are gradually reopening. In turn, the demand for cleaning products is likely to normalise.
Lockdown easing
The group, best known for its Schwarzkopf hair care products and Persil detergents, forecasts organic sales growth of 2 to 5 per cent for 2021 and an increase in adjusted earnings per share of 5 to 15 per cent, Reuters writes. The company assumes that Covid measures in many key markets will be lifted during the first quarter and that there will be no new largescale closures.
In 2020, Henkel saw sales decline by 4.5 per cent to 19.25 billion euros. Adjusted operating profit fell by a fifth to 2.58 billion euros. Both figures are slightly higher than what analysts had expected on average.
Sales in the adhesives business, which accounts for about half of group revenues and is heavily dependent on industrial customers such as car manufacturers, fell organically by 4.2 per cent. On the other hand, demand for detergents and cleaning products was boosted by the Covid pandemic, resulting in a 5.6 per cent increase in sales in that particular division.
