Henkel Q1 net income climbs 8.9%

German cosmetics and toiletry giant Henkel’s first quarter for 2013 has gotten off to a steady start. Sales in the quarter came to €4.033bn – an increase of 0.6% year on year. All of the company’s divisions performed well, particularly its Beauty Care business, which posted organic sales growth of 4%.

Total net income for the quarter rose by 8.9% from €370m to €403m. Meanwhile, earnings per preferred share (EPS) rose from €0.84 to €0.91 euros.

Commenting on the company’s outlook for the rest of 2013, Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted said: “We expect the global economic environment to remain difficult. However, we anticipate industrial demand to improve during the second half of the year. Given the challenges in our global market environment, we will continue to further simplify and accelerate our processes in order to increase our flexibility and efficiency.”