Henkel ranked as the top-performing European household and personal care company in the four-week window ending April 18, according to Nielsen US scanner data reviewed by Bank of America. The German consumer goods firm posted sales growth of 2.9% for the period.
The primary contributor to Henkel’s gain was pricing, which rose 5.7% during the four weeks. Within Henkel’s assortment, shampoo products showed notable strength, with sales accelerating by 7.8% in the same span.
At the other end of the spectrum, Reckitt recorded the weakest outcome among the companies tracked, with sales down 2.5% for the four weeks ending April 18. That decline was attributed entirely to a 2.9% deceleration in volume. Pressure for Reckitt was concentrated in its cough and cold remedies category, where sales fell 10.9%.
Across the set of tracked categories, average value growth was 2.3% for the four weeks ending April 18 versus the period ending March 21. That represents a month-on-month deceleration in value of 1.4%.
The slowdown in value growth was primarily driven by a drop in volumes, which fell 1.3% in the latest four-week period. The data therefore point to price being the main support for headline value growth while physical consumption weakened slightly.
Essity experienced a clear moderation in its adult incontinence category, where sales growth slowed to 3.8% from 10.5% in the prior month. While still positive, the pace of expansion for that category cooled materially.
Taken together, the Nielsen snapshot indicates sequential softness in sales for the household and personal care sector in the most recent four-week period. Performance at the group level softened, reflecting divergent company-level outcomes driven by differing mixes of price and volume trends.
Methodology note: All figures cited are based on Nielsen US scanner data and the analysis provided by Bank of America for the four-week period ending April 18, compared with the period ending March 21.