Reckitt Benckiser shares rose on Wednesday after the consumer group said it enjoyed higher like-for-like sales with health and nutrition products seeing a sharp increase.
Reckitt’s largely shook off the impact of a rising prices and pointed towards a portfolio of products that were less impacted by COVID and cost of living concerns.
“Reckitt’s resilient performance so far this year continues to impress. Price hikes were all but guaranteed given the double-digit inflation in certain costs the group’s seeing, but impressively volumes are still growing,” said Matt Britzman, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“That’s testament to the defensive nature of Reckitt’s portfolio, cleaning and hygiene products are hardly going to be the first things left off shopping lists when wallets are stretched.”
Reckitt Benckiser overall like-for-like group Q2 sales rose 11.9% as Health product sales rose 24.2% while Nutrition revenue increased by 26.8%.
An upbeat Q2 helped H1 actual revenues rise 4.4%, and 2.2% on a constant currency basis.
The stronger sales helped boost adjusted operating profit by 23.9% to £1,765m while margins rose by 290bps to 25.6%.
“We have delivered an excellent first half performance in 2022. Innovation and improved in-market execution are driving sustained, broad-based revenue growth and market share momentum across our portfolio,” said Laxman Narasimhan, Reckitt Benckiser at Chief Executive Officer.
“Our brands less sensitive to the impact of Covid are growing ahead of our mid-single digit target, whilst our disinfection brands are performing as expected, well above pre-pandemic levels. The actions we have taken to broaden the shoulders of our Lysol and Dettol franchises, combined with our innovation and penetration building initiatives have built a significantly larger, sustainable base from which we will grow.”
Reckitts also said they expected to see LFL net revenue growth of +5 – 8% for 2022. Reckitt Benckiser shares were 4% higher at 6,636p at the time of writing.
