THE WHAT? Henkel has reported its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2022. The German manufacturer of Schwarzkopf saw group sales rise a respectable 7.1 percent to €5.3 billion versus the same three-month period a year ago.

THE DETAILS However, this was no thanks to its Beauty Care division, which saw organic sales drop 1.2 percent. Henkel said its Beauty Care unit’s lack luster performance was ‘due to implementation of planned portfolio measures’; the company is in the process of merging its Laundry & Home Crae and Beauty Care business units into an integrated multi-category platfrom to be known as Henkel Consumer Brands. The first phase of this process is due to be completed by the end of 2023.

Diving into the beauty category’s performance by region, sales growth was good overall in emerging markets in the first quarter, with Asia (excluding Japan) and Latin America generating significant increases. Overall, organic sales performance was below the prior-year level in the mature markets, mainly due to demand for hair colorants returning to normal and to portfolio optimization measures.

THE WHY? Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel, commented, “This very good sales performance is a testament to our growth agenda as well as the huge dedication of our employees worldwide – and we want to express our gratitude for their great commitment. However, the macroeconomic environment has continued to deteriorate dramatically since the beginning of the year. The impact of the global coronavirus crisis, accompanied by an extraordinarily tense situation in the raw material markets and global supply chains, has been drastically exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.”