Commenting on the results, Kris Licht, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“We have delivered a good first quarter. Following a period of price-led growth, we are now returning to a more balanced contribution from price, mix and volume. We grew volumes in many of our powerbrands in the quarter, including Lysol, Dettol, Durex and Finish, as well as our non-seasonal OTC portfolio. In addition, we continue to benefit from carryover pricing and consumers trading up to our premium innovations.
The net revenue performance in the quarter is in line with our expectations. Hygiene delivered broad-based growth. Health saw good growth across many brands, reduced by a tough comparator in our cold & flu OTC brands. Nutrition continues to normalise in the US as expected, and we have maintained our value market share leadership.
We are well placed to deliver value creation by leveraging our strong portfolio of brands through investment and innovation. This drives our continued strong free cashflow generation, our accelerated share buyback programme and increased cash returns to shareholders.
We are on track to deliver our full year revenue and profit targets, led by mid-single-digit growth across our Health and Hygiene portfolios.”.”
