In fiscal 2009, Henkel generated sales of €13,573 million, a decrease of 3.9% compared to the previous year. In organic terms, sales decreased by 3.5% versus prior year. After a substantial decline in sales in the first quarter caused by the economic crisis, the subsequent quarters were characterized by a gradual recovery. However, developments at the company's three business sectors continued to show a very mixed picture. While the consumer goods businesses of cosmetics/toiletries and laundry and home care continued to perform very well with organic growth rates of 3.5% and 2.9% respectively, sales of the adhesive technologies business sector decreased organically by 10.2%.
"For Henkel, and the world economy as a whole, 2009 will go down as a challenging year. Nevertheless, we have made good progress toward achieving our 2012 financial targets as proven by our outstanding results in the fourth quarter of 2009," said Kasper Rorsted, chairman, Henkel Management Board. "Our laundry and home care and cosmetics/toiletries businesses have expanded their market positions and further increased their profitability. Once again, our strong brands have also made an appreciable contribution to the good performance: our new brand Syoss for example was the most successful launch in the hair care sector in 2009. We have put ourselves in a strong position and expect to improve noticeably our results in the current financial year."
The complete fiscal year 2009 report can be found on Henkel's site.
