Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (HEN3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Henkel Half Year 2021 Results Conference Call. With us today are Carsten Knobel, CEO; Marco Swoboda, CFO; and the Investor Relations team. [Operator Instructions] In addition, a replay of the conference call and the Q&A session will be available on our website, www.henkel.com/ir, for a certain period of time. By asking a question during the Q&A session, you agree to both live broadcasting as well as the recording of your question, including salutation to be published on our website. Here, we will briefly mention your name and the company you are representing. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Knobel. Please go ahead, sir.

Dear investors and analysts, good morning from Düsseldorf and a warm welcome to our conference call on the results for the first half of 2021. And really thanks for joining us today. I'm here, as you have already heard, with our CFO, Marco Swoboda. Let me begin this call reminding everyone that this presentation containing the usual formal disclaimer for forward-looking statements within the meaning of relevant U.S. legislation, can be accessed via our website at henkel.com/ir. The presentation and the discussions are conducted subject to this disclaimer. I will not read the disclaimer. We take it as read into the record of this conference call. Today, I'm going to lead you through the key developments in the first half year, and I will also provide you an update on where we stand with the execution of our purposeful growth agenda. Then Marco will comment the financials in more detail, and I will continue with the full year outlook before closing with Henkel's priority for the remainder of the year. We are looking forward then to answering your questions at the end. Starting with the key developments in the first half of 2021. We delivered a very strong performance in a really truly demanding and volatile market environment with significant improvements on both the top and the bottom line. With double-digit organic sales growth of 11.3% supported by all our business units and really with growth in all regions adjusted for currency effect, Henkel is back to 2019 pre-COVID levels. And with a particular strength in Adhesive Technologies, we've achieved an organic sales growth of 20% in the first half. Beauty Care recorded organic sales growth of 5.2%, driven by a very strong recovery of our Hair Professional business. Sales in the consumer businesses declined. Laundry & Home Care sustained its strong performance with share gains in most regions and a very strong organic sales growth of 3.9%. And thanks to our strong sales growth and corresponding operational leverage with structural costs really well under control, we were able to improve adjusted EBIT margin by 190 basis points now to a level of 14.4% despite really first headwinds from the input cost inflation. At constant exchange rates, adjusted EPS increased by about 30%. We also made strong progress in the execution of our framework -- in our strategic framework with the key focus on expanding our competitive edge and enhancing our company culture. Our new Henkel purpose was launched in the second quarter and really sits at the heart of our strategy. We achieved all of this in a highly demanding and a volatile business environment, which continues to be impacted by the implications of the global COVID-19 pandemic. And I will allude to that in a second. We are reflecting this also in our financial outlook for the full year, which we are updating today based on our strong performance year-to-date. We are raising our expectation for organic sales growth by 200 basis points, now to 6% to 8%. At the same time, our new margin guidance of 13.5% to 14.5% is incorporating significant input cost inflation to a large extent, compensated by the better top line and countermeasures. And on the bottom line, we are confirming our outlook for adjusted EPS growth by a high single-digit to mid-teens percentage. Let us have a closer look at the business environment we are operating in. In the first half, we experienced a strong economic recovery further accelerating in the second quarter. Industrial demand improved significantly with a broad-based recovery across regions and sectors. Consumer behavior continued to be impacted by the pandemic, and we witnessed varying dynamics and partly high volatility in demand in different categories. The scarcity in raw material supply and logistics was drastic and broad-based. Cost inflation in volatile markets accelerated in the course of the first half year. But let me provide you a little bit more of details related to this. While the pandemic situation continued to affect most countries, we experienced a very strong economic recovery in the first half. This is evidenced by the development of the industrial production index, which advanced by about 11% year-over-year in half year 1 and is around 16.5% growth in Q2. Whereas the development in the first quarter has been driven by a strong recovery, especially in the Asia Pacific region and all above China, growth in Q2 was much more broad-based across regions. Most markets relevant for our Adhesive Technologies business recorded a sustained significant recovery. These include general manufacturing and maintenance and especially the automotive sector, despite headwinds from the semiconductor shortage. However, this important sector is still strongly behind 2019 volumes. The electronics, the packaging, and consumer and craftsmen markets on the other hand continued to benefit from an ongoing strong demand. And as a result of the very strong recovery, industrial production volumes exceeded their respective pre-COVID levels. On the other side, we see varying dynamics in consumer categories. Despite a rising number of vaccinations, COVID infection rates remained high and consumer behavior continued to be impacted. We can see consumer demand starting to normalize with varying dynamics in our different categories, but volatility remains high as quite some categories are lapping high peaks and lows in demand in the prior year period. Demand for hygiene-related categories and those categories that benefited from stay-at-home effects continued to be above pre-COVID levels, but turned negative in the course of the first half of 2021. That includes, for example, hard surface cleaners and at-home colorations, for example. But also demand for heavy beauty detergents is softer year-to-date. Automatic dishwashing, on the other hand, is still positive. We faced the strongest market pressures in Body Care and here, particular in soaps. The category is hit by a substantial unwind of demand against extreme peak levels, especially in the second quarter and in our key markets, North America and Western Europe. Year-to-date, global markets declined by a clear double-digit percentage. In contrast, the Hair Salon market showed a strong rebound at the first half year progressed, benefiting from continued lifting of restrictions and reopening of salons. And also, the demand for styling products started to turn positive in the course of Q2. However, this comes with some time delay and still far from precrisis levels. And finally, the booming industrial demand and the continued high demand in many consumer categories are meeting tight production capacity. In addition, weather and pandemic-related disruptions and container and labor shortages are putting really pressure on already tight markets. So in the first 6 months, we recorded so far more than 1,000 force majeure situations, container freight rates almost doubled and prices for many raw materials experienced really drastic increases. Since May, these trends really accelerated. And back then, we had increased our expectation for direct material prices to increase by an upper mid-single-digit percentage. Today, we are updating this assessment, and we expect prices to rise by a low-teens percentage in the full year. This implies further cost pressure also in half year 2. In this highly challenging environment, our focus is very clear, all hands are on deck to secure raw materials, production and supply to our customers. And so far, we have been very resilient and could avoid significant disruption. We really work hard to limit the impact on Henkel's profitability with pricing, where possible, albeit with a certain time lag, as you know, as well as additional savings are created in the supply chain area. On top, I think we maintained our focus on the medium and long term, which brings me now to our purposeful growth agenda. We continuously evolve our purposeful growth agenda, and we implement our strategic framework with full force with 2 clear priorities in 2021. First, gaining competitive edge and really accelerating performance through innovation, sustainability and digitalization. And second, making our cultural change tangible for every employee at Henkel. We achieved a strong progress across all defined focus fields, and like -- and I like to give you some more color on our key milestones and also the achievements. Now let me start first how we advanced with our active portfolio management. We had identified brands and categories with a total sales volume of more than EUR 1 billion, and we had marked around half of this amount for divestments or discontinuations by the end of 2021. Up to now, we divested or discontinued a total of roughly 45 brands and businesses with an annual sales volume of around EUR 350 million, predominantly in our consumer businesses. Divestments account for about 2/3 and discontinuations for around 1/3. And we sustained the positive trend with brands and businesses that we had marked for turnaround measures. Around 60% of the revenues in the turnaround cluster delivered an improved top line momentum. In addition, an attractive acquisition strengthened also our sustainability position. Just a few days ago, we successfully completed the acquisition of Swania, the fastest growing French independent player in the ecological home care market. The acquired portfolio comprises Maison Verte, one the most established French sustainable home care brands offering a wide variety of products certified with Ecolabel and the brand YOU, targeting young technological-oriented consumers. The acquired business are highly complementary to our portfolio, providing compelling growth opportunities in a very attractive and also profitable market segment. Second, we successfully gained competitive edge through innovation, sustainability and digitalization. Starting with adhesives on that part. In adhesives, we are delivering against our ambition to accelerate growth in very -- in attractive markets. In the rapidly growing market for thermal interface materials, our teams addressed the increased challenges from high-power density and voltage in 5G device. They co-developed high-performance solutions with key customers, which resulted in mid-double-digit growth and market share gains. Further extended, our very strong market position in the beverage can market with high-performance solutions in lubricants, cleaners and sealants, thanks to major project wins for new capacities and line extensions. And we strengthened our leading position in the silicon and sealant market, really successfully integrating our latest acquisition in the North American home improvement market. Looking to Beauty Care, and starting with our Professional business. In Beauty Care Professional, we see a strong comeback. We recorded a very strong performance in Q2 with mid-double-digit growth across all regions. Our strong customer relationship, the close support for our salons with numerous digital events and superior innovations that are really fueling the reopening of salons were all a key for our success. We relaunched IGORA Royal with a redesigned sustainable packaging concept, and we introduced the Joico COLORFUL line extension with a new formula and really digital coloration tools. The digitalization of our business model is at full speed, our new e-shop, which is already live in 19 countries and the introduction of the salon finder helps us to connect consumers with more than 6,000 salons globally to highlight here some of the examples. Turning to our Beauty Care consumer business, which is not meeting our expectations. And we recorded a decline in organic sales, for sure in challenging markets and also driven by weak performance in the Body Care category. Nevertheless, we have also made progress in our strategic initiatives. In Hair Care, we introduced consumer-focused innovations, leading to continued growth throughout half year 1, such as the Gliss Kur 7-Second Express and line extensions under our Extra Care brand. In color -- in hair color, we are outgrowing competition with share gains of 110 basis points versus the precrisis levels, a great achievement in a challenging market environment with demand starting to normalize. Here, the teams successfully relaunched Natural & Easy with a new formula -- with a natural formula and a more sustainable packaging. We are finally expanding our millennial brand, got2b, into the color cosmetics category with consumers as co-creators. Moving to Laundry & Home Care. In Laundry & Home Care, we expand our innovation leadership. In a strategically important cap segment, we continue to outgrow our markets. We gained 75 basis points in global market shares. This was supported by strong innovations such as our brand new Perwoll caps and an expansion of our Persil 4in1 Discs portfolio. In Toilet Care, we further strengthened our position as global market leader, hitting an all-time high market share with the launch of Bref Brilliant Gel, the first of its kind. And we also achieved strong market share gains of around 60 basis points in dishwashing, driven by successful launches, be it in the new Somat Excellence 4in1 Caps or the Pril Antibacterial. And of course, I also want to update you on our progress in Laundry & Home Care North America. Here, mastering the turnaround is a top priority for us. Here, we are taking decisive actions along our framework. We stepped up on our innovation initiatives with launches across our key brands, the launch of Persil ProClean Active Scent Boost or relaunches under our all and Snuggle brands are important examples. Service levels and customer in-stock levels have improved meaningfully year-to-date despite ongoing supply chain challenges. And our new management team is in place with an enhanced organizational structure and cooperating closely with our key accounts. We have not yet achieved the turnaround, but we are starting to make progress. There are early signs that our initiatives starting to pay off. The team has almost stopped the erosion of market shares of our core brands and the positive trend, which we see we need for sure to confirm in the upcoming months. Besides innovations, sustainability is key to gain competitive edge. Adhesive Technologies, the teams expand our leading position through sustainability initiatives. We are supporting the leading sports shoe brands with Loctite equipments, a unique water-based bonding technology. And hereby, we help our customers to reduce CO2 emissions in the bonding process by up to 30%. We developed an innovative building installation system, which enables our construction business customers, energy savings of up to 50%. And we developed and are now executing a comprehensive approach to map and track the sustainability contribution of our entire Adhesive Technology portfolio. In Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care, the teams continue to step up and put strong emphasis on sustainable packaging. They launched, among others, recyclable refill packs for our Beauty Care brand, Nature Box, containing 74% less plastic compared to bottles, or we continue to expand our green platforms with our new sustainable Laundry & Home Care brand, Love Nature, which has become the #3 in the fast-growing green segment in Germany. And our progress is also recognized. We received the PCD Innovation Award for our social plastic ecosystem, which we built and expand through our cooperation with plastic banning since 2017. And finally, the third competitive edge pillar, the digital part. Our digital transformation is also key in that area. In the first half year, our digital sales share advanced to a new record level of around 18%, supported by each business unit. Beauty and Laundry & Home Care combined grew e-commerce sales by more than 30% year-to-date. And Adhesive Technologies boosted our digital sales in our e-shop by a mid-double-digit percentage and increased the share of digital sales now to more than 25%. To further gain leading edge digital experience capabilities, we entered into a strategic partnership with Adobe. Leveraging Adobe's innovation power and ecosystem, we intend to bring our new digital across business platform to the next level, focusing on consumer and customer intelligence and experience. Third, we doubled down on our cultural transformation. Our new purpose: Pioneers at heart for the good of generations will be our North Star and guides us on our journey towards a collaborative culture with empowered people. But let me give some more color what we mean -- what I mean with this. Pioneers at Heart captures the entrepreneurial spirit deeply rooted in our DNA and which has always been anchored in the heart of all Henkelaners. For the good describes that doing business was never an end in itself. For us, it was always combined with a strong sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of our employees, our communities and society. It was always combined with acting in a sustainable way. And generation means our commitment for the next generation of people, company and products. We also implement clear initiatives to make cultural change tangible for every single employee. We promote consistent leadership behavior to empower our employees and give them more room for creativity. We simplified internal processes to enable faster decision-making and focus on strengthening customer focus and innovation. We support the individual transformation of our employees, and we introduced a new leadership development format such as the new 360 feedback tool to increase leadership quality and effectiveness with an ambitious goal because until end of 2021, we will have engaged all top executives. And we adapted the way we work together, and we have launched the Smart Work, our new holistic framework in 85 countries. It covers not only mobile work, but also the role of offices, employee health, and workforce digitalization. For example, it includes the option now for employees to work up to 40% from home. So wrapping it up, we made strong progress across all defined focus fields and despite a highly demanding and volatile business environment. So with this now, let me hand over to Marco, who will lead you now through the financials in more detail. Marco?

Thank you very much, Carsten, and good morning to everybody on the call also from my side. Let's dive straight into the financials for the first half year. We recorded double-digit organic sales growth of 11.3% in the first 6 months. This was due to strongly increasing volumes at plus 9.2%. Pricing was up by 2.1% compared to the prior year period with increases in each business unit. The net effect of our acquisitions, divestments had a positive impact on sales of plus 0.4%. Currencies overall were a significant headwind at minus 7%. So in total, Henkel recorded a strong increase of 4.7% in nominal sales to a level of EUR 9.9 billion. In the first half of 2021, we recorded organic sales growth in all regions. Our strong performance in the emerging markets has been a key driver with double-digit increases in every region, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. North America recorded an organic sales growth of 3%, mainly driven by double-digit growth in Adhesive Technologies, while Laundry & Home Care was below previous year's level. Beauty Care recorded positive organic sales growth due to the strong comeback in Professional while consumer was clearly below previous year. Western Europe was up by 5.5%, largely as a result of a double-digit growth in Adhesive Technologies. Let me provide more color on the half year performance of our business units, starting with Adhesive Technologies. Adhesive Technologies achieved organic sales growth of 20% in the first half 2021, with double-digit growth across all business areas and regions. Growth was supported by an ongoing strong recovery of industrial demand. And compared to the first half 2019, Adhesive Technologies organic sales were up by more than 7%. By business area, Automotive & Metals delivered the strongest growth, thanks to an exceptional performance in the automotive business outperforming its markets. While the Metals business is back above its pre-COVID levels, Automotive is still below. Electronics & Industrials also grew double digit compared to the prior year period and significantly compared to the first half of 2019. We benefited from strong customer demand, especially in the Electronics business. The Industrials business accelerated its recovery and achieved double-digit growth, though still slightly behind pre-pandemic levels. Packaging & Consumer Goods continued its strong performance in the first half, particularly driven by recovery of demand in the Lifestyle business and the sustained strong development in the Packaging business. We were also able to grow back above precrisis levels in Craftsmen, Construction & Professional. Here, the double-digit organic growth was strongly supported by high demand in the general manufacturing and maintenance business, partially benefiting from some inventory buildup. Backed by the broad-based recovery of industry demand, Adhesive Technologies' organic sales development was predominantly driven by double-digit volume growth of 19%. Pricing was positive at 1.2%, and that is important, accelerated in the second quarter. Thanks in particular to the strong expansion of volumes and price increases, we were able to compensate the headwinds from significantly increased direct material prices. So overall, Adhesive Technologies was able to improve its gross margin. The adjusted EBIT margin came in at 17.3%, corresponding to an increase of 420 basis points. And this was due to the strong recovery of volumes, as said above, and better fixed cost absorption despite the headwinds from increased raw materials and logistics costs. Net working capital at 10.5% improved by 390 basis points year-over-year. Now coming to Beauty Care. Beauty Care recorded a very strong organic sales growth of 5.2% in the first 6 months, driven by both increasing volumes and prices. This development was supported by a very strong recovery of the Hair Professional business, which achieved clear double-digit growth in the first half. Our performance was particularly strong in the second quarter with mid-double-digit organic sales growth. The consumer business closed the first half organically below the prior year period with mixed developments in the business areas and regions. Our Body Care business remained clearly below the first half of 2020 with a double-digit organic sales decline, in particular in soaps and in North America. This was mainly due to strong market headwinds triggered by fast normalization of demand against extreme peak levels in the previous year, especially in key mature markets. In addition, the business is facing an unbalanced supply-demand situation, including excess inventories affecting the whole market. Organic sales performance in consumer hair, in contrast, was very strong. Hair colorants achieved good organic growth in the first half, but turned negative in Q2 due to normalization of demand. Nevertheless, we were able to significantly expand market shares. Also, styling recorded good organic growth in H1 and an especially strong rebound in the second quarter. However, demand in the category is still far below pre-COVID levels. The same holds true for hair care, which significant -- which achieved significant organic growth in recovering markets. The adjusted EBIT margin came in at 10%, 50 basis points above the level of H1 2020. Here, the strong comeback of our Hair Professional business and related fixed cost absorption improvements as well as mix effects positively affected the margin. In contrast, challenges in our consumer business, especially North America, as well as strong increases of direct material prices had a counteracting effect. The gross margin overall was flat year-over-year. Net working capital improved by 100 basis points year-over-year to a level of 2.9%, largely driven by improved accounts receivable. Finally, on to Laundry & Home Care, which continued its very strong organic sales performance with 3.9% growth. Laundry Care recorded good organic sales growth. Special detergents, laundry additives and fabric finishes supported this performance with very strong growth each. While heavy-duty detergents overall were flat in the first half, our mega brand, Persil, continued its excellent performance with significant organic sales growth. Home Care continued to be a key driver of the business unit's performance, delivering a significant organic sales growth despite a high prior year basis, especially in the second quarter. And this development was, in particular, driven by double-digit growth in the dishwashing and toilet care categories. In overall declining markets, Laundry & Home Care continued to grow market share in almost each region with particular strength in Western and Eastern Europe as well as in Asia Pacific. The North America region remained behind the prior year level, both in terms of organic sales development as well as market shares. Here, our business was affected by supply and logistics bottlenecks. Nevertheless, we are seeing first signs of improvement with market shares starting to bottom out. The business unit's adjusted EBIT margin came in at 15%, 40 basis points below the prior year period. This was mainly the result of a lower gross margin. Here, headwinds from high direct material prices and adverse transactional currency effects could not be offset by a strongly positive pricing and savings. Net working capital as a percentage of sales increased slightly by 50 basis points year-over-year to an overall low level of minus 5.7%. Back to the Henkel Group now, taking a closer look at our adjusted income statement. Henkel recorded an adjusted EBIT margin of 14.4% in the first 6 months, up by 190 basis points year-over-year. And group adjusted gross margin improved slightly to a level of 46.6%. With structural costs well under control, the increase in the adjusted EBIT margin was mainly a result of the strong top line performance as well as positive mix and the related operating leverage improvement. Marketing, selling and distribution expenses increased by 0.6% in absolute terms. So in absolute terms, there's an increase by 0.6% but decreased by 110 basis points to a level of 25.6% as a percentage of sales. So let me emphasize why we slightly increased investments also in marketing and advertising. In absolute terms, the decline in percent of sales is due to the higher sales level in the period under review. Let me move further down the P&L. Adjusted EBIT totaled EUR 1.4 billion, roughly 90% above the prior year figure. The financial result came in at minus EUR 29 million compared to minus EUR 52 million in the first half 2020. The adjusted tax rate amounted to 25.4%, 10 basis points lower year-on-year. As a result, we ended the first half with an adjusted net income after minorities of about EUR 1 billion. This translates into adjusted earnings per preferred share of EUR 2.40, representing an increase of 22.4% compared to the first half 2020 or at constant exchange rates, plus of 30.1%. Moving on to our cash KPIs. For the Henkel Group, the ratio of net working capital to sales reached 3.6%, representing an improvement of 80 basis points year-over-year. In fact, during our full year call, we had expected the normalization of net working capital in this year. This has now occurred, and our net working capital position increased in the first half year, mainly driven by the strong sales growth and compared to prior year period, which had recorded a sales decline. As a result of the net -- of the increase in net working capital versus year-end and partially offset by the improved operating profit, we recorded a free cash flow of EUR 471 million, which is almost 50% lower compared to the first half 2020. Despite the dividend payout of about EUR 800 million to our shareholders in the second quarter, we were able to sustain a strong net financial position at minus EUR 1 billion. This was mainly thanks to our free cash flow generation as well as proceeds from divestments in the context of our active portfolio management of slightly more than EUR 200 million. So with this, I would like to hand back to you, Carsten.

Thank you, Marco. So before we move to the Q&A, let me provide the full year outlook and also to outline our key business priorities for the remainder of 2021. As said before, we're operating in a business environment that continues to be impacted by the COVID pandemic. Consumer demand is expected to return to more normal levels in many categories as the year progresses with really varying dynamics and partially high volatility. Industrial demand is recovering sharply, even stronger than anticipated and already beyond the precrisis levels in many sectors. After a significant increase in the first half, however, growth is expected to slow down from Q3 given a high prior year basis. Based on our very strong performance in the first 6 months, we are today raising our expectations for group organic sales growth in the full year by 200 basis points, now to a range of 6% to 8%. This is, in particular, driven by exceptional growth of our Adhesive Technologies, which we now expect at 10% to 12% for this year. Beauty and Laundry & Home Care are expected to deliver organic sales growth of 2% to 4% each. At the same time, we are facing extremely scarce supply and logistic markets. We saw drastic and broad-based increases of raw material prices and distribution costs. These headwinds will affect our businesses to a stronger extent than originally anticipated, especially in the second half year. We are now assuming that direct material prices will increase this year by low-teens percentage, up from our previous expectation of an upper mid-single-digit increase. The teams at Henkel are working hard to limit the impact on our businesses and profitability, and we expect that the implementation of all countermeasures will compensate input cost inflation in the current fiscal year to a large extent. Our updated guidance for the adjusted EBIT margin is reflecting these additional headwinds, and we're now expecting to increase profitability this year to a level of 13.5% to 14.5% compared to the prior year level of 13.4%. Bottom line, our outlook for adjusted EPS growth at constant currencies remains unchanged, and we expect it to improve by a high single-digit to mid-teens percentage. We continue to live in unprecedented times. As the Management Board, it is our commitment to care and react. Protecting and supporting our employees, their families, our customers and strategic partners continues to be our #1 priority. We remain laser focused on successfully managing the performance across our businesses in highly volatile times, mastering the current exceptional raw materials and supply chain environment. With our broad-based set of measures and clear transparent communication, we collaborate closely with our customers and business partners to master all these challenges together. And at the same time, we continue shaping our company, and we are driving the execution of our purposeful growth agenda. With this, ladies and gentlemen, we look forward to your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from the line of Bruno Monteyne from Bernstein.

My first question is on the sales growth. On the one hand, you raised growth expectation, which is sort of great. But if I look at the 2-year compound growth, so going back to 2019, taking out the impact of COVID, every single division, Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care, and Laundry & Home Care have slowed down quite materially from quarter 1 to quarter 2. So despite outside of the world, it's normalizing a little bit and things getting slightly better to normal. That sort of quarter-on-quarter slowdown seems quite concerning. And the question therefore is, what am I missing? And so should we expect that to continue? The second question is you referred to the goal to change in your slides and in the press release quite a few times. And so you can see what's the critical part of the transformation. But can you give any evidence of sort of ways in which you track culture change? What's really changing? Is there any evidence of it getting better? So any more color you could give and make us understand how material the progress there is or what's more to do would be very helpful.

Sorry, I was on mute. So maybe I start first with the cultural transformation question and the question what you have in terms of evidence because maybe for the first one, I don't 100% get your question. But let me start first with the cultural transformation. So as I talk -- pointed it out before, it is really one of our top priorities because, in terms of getting a collaborative culture and empower our people, I think that's, for me, of utmost importance in further driving entrepreneurial leadership on that. So in terms of concrete measures, which also, especially in the first half year, have been recognized, we focused really on measures to promote consistent leadership behavior. So really to empower our people and give them more room for creativity, for example, by simplifying internal processes to enable a faster decision-making as well as further strengthening really the customer focus and also the innovation. And when you ask for evidence, I think the evidence is when you see how our organic sales growth is developing in the first half year and how we are raising that for the full year now to the level of 6% to 8%, I think that's definitely, for me, evidence in that part. But also successful transformation is definitely also about the individual transformation because I think it's clear that, for sure, you have to move as a team, but this team is based on individual behavior. And we have introduced our new leadership development format to increase personal leadership quality and also effectiveness of top executive. And as I pointed it out, our new 360 feedback tool is up and running. And as I mentioned before, until end of the year, we will have all top executives being on that part. And I think it's clear that it takes them a little bit of time to adapt or to take the feedback and change the way how you are leading. And I think it's also important, which in these days, also in the cultural transformation, plays an important part, is our smart work concept, which we have introduced in the first half year in 85 countries really as a holistic framework, which gives our people the possibility to work up to 40% from home. And what will be an ongoing part is -- and I know and you're absolutely right, it is difficult to measure. We conducted a leadership survey last year, and we will continue to do that into the future, and by that, tracking progress. And here, we will clearly see how progress will be also seen by our whole community. Maybe that's to the first question. Marco, will you take the first one?

Good. So the first question I understand goes to the comparison to the pre-COVID levels, so 2019 in essence. And we actually commented on the first half where, overall, we see that we strongly advance already in Adhesive Technologies above the pre-COVID levels in the first half and -- to a significant degree, and that holds true for all 4 business divisions and also on the level below for all SBUs, except for automotive and industrials. And industrials is related to our aerospace business. So overall, Adhesive is pretty strongly above the first half of 2019. Beauty Care being behind in consumer still, and that is largely also a result of declining markets in the first half this year. And Professional, almost back to pre-COVID sales levels. Laundry & Home Care compared to the first half 2019, significantly above the level in both business areas, Laundry & Home Care. And I would not go now down quarter-by-quarter. We have to see how the quarter phasing continues. But overall, we see that the business came back very much stronger than what we anticipated even beginning of that year, also driven by the overall recovery of industrial demand in the economy. So overall, we see that business came back much stronger. And to the quarter question, we have to see how that develops further. It's too early now to comment on that.

Bruno maybe to add in terms of -- because part of your question, I did not understand at the beginning. I think if you think back maybe 6 months ago when we were talking about when can we reach pre-COVID levels, I think, especially for our Professional business in Beauty Care and our Adhesives business, we were more on the level to come back in 2022 to this level. So we have already reached that in these specific parts where we have been impacted by COVID already mid of 2021. And I think that is a point which makes us quite optimistic.

Clearly, my challenge was more around the quarterly change. If I look at your -- compared to 2019, you've sort of slowed down by about 100 basis points quarter-on-quarter. And that's what my key concern is, whether we sort of had the best in quarter 1 and we should expect an ongoing sort of slowdown or not. It's really looking at the exit rate in quarter 2, which looks quite weak compared to quarter 1. Quarter 1 seems to be very strong, but not followed up in quarter 2.

Okay. Maybe we'll come back to that afterwards.

Our next question comes from the line of Guillaume Delmas from UBS.

Two questions for me, please. The first one is going back to your margin development in Beauty Care. Because if I look at less than 3 years ago, you were achieving 17% plus EBIT margin in this business. And now based on your updated margin guidance for the year, it seems that for a second consecutive year, we will be barely in double-digit territory. So my question here is, do you think Beauty Care is now structurally almost at best a low-teen margin business? Or do you think it's realistic to expect a quick return to a good mid-teen margin level in Beauty? And then my second question is on direct material costs. So anticipating now a low teen percentage range for inflation this year, yet you have maintained your margin guidance for Adhesive Technologies and in sharp contrast to both your Consumer Goods businesses where you've downgraded the margin guidance. So maybe could you walk us through the commodity cost headwind you are anticipating in the second half by division? So in other words, what I'm getting -- trying to get to is, are you expecting less of an input cost headwind in Adhesives than in Consumer Goods in the second half? Or is it simply because you're more confident about your pricing power in Adhesives than in Consumer Goods?

So Guillaume, starting with your first question of the margin in Beauty Care. You're referring to some years ago, yes, where the level was what you explained. You know that in the meantime, we had made the point of investing more, especially in the consumer businesses in both which had an impact on the margin level and where we are today. There is definitely know that this is the future expected level, which we -- which you would expect going forward for Beauty Care. There are a lot of influencing factors on that. For sure, the COVID situation. You know that the COVID situation, especially impacted the Professional business, which had a margin impact. You also have heard today that we are coming back, not only from a top line, but also from a bottom line perspective in the Professional business. So the clear answer is this is not the level what we expect going forward. You have to take into account for the first half year. We have talked about it, but maybe to make it even more explicit. If I look back at the last 10 years in terms of now market development in our consumer retail business where we have been always seeing a positive market development in the last 10 years, it's the first time in the first half year of 2021 that we have seen a negative market development. All these factors, for sure, are playing then also in terms of leverage, in terms of this part, which has also impacted the first half year in that part. But as I mentioned it before, clear goal is to -- that this is not the level what we expect going forward. To your second question, hope that helps. And the second part, the direct material cost question. Maybe, Marco, you can give, based on the divisional question from Guillaume, a little bit more light on that?

Let me frame that overall first. So as you said, direct material prices, we guide now with a low teens percentage increase with 2020, and that is a sharp increase, of course, versus prior year. It is our ambition to compensate a clear majority of the additional headwind, and that headwind now also going into the divisional question is in particular strong in Adhesives and also in Laundry and somewhat a bit less in Beauty Care. But we try to compensate a clear majority of the additional headwind by the higher group sales level and therefore, also related to profit contribution and benefits in the operational leverage. And that is in particular the case for Adhesive Technologies, where also we have upgraded again the guidance from the prior number. So here in Adhesives, also the operational leverage does help us to compensate the higher material costs. Plus, as we said, also from a pricing perspective, we are very confident in Adhesive Technologies as we demonstrated in the past to also pass on high input prices to the customers, in particular, over time. As we said before, there is a time lag, of course. So not everything can be compensated this year also in Adhesives, but a large chunk of what is coming. And then we will further catch up, then, of course, into next year so that, overall, we can also compensate over time. In the consumer businesses, Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care, it's more difficult to pass on. So here, we are a bit more cautious, and that is also reflected now in the outlook.

Our next question comes from the line of Celine Pannuti from JPMorgan.

So my first question is coming back on Adhesive Technologies. Some of your competitors have been talking about implementation of pricing in the high single-digit range. Can you confirm whether this is as well the level of pricing that you are seeking to implement or may potentially have announced already to your customers in the second half? And maybe on a more mid-term question in Adhesive pricing -- in Adhesive margin, excuse me, are you seeing as well like some of your peers, some of the benefits of more -- growing in technology with better mix from a margin standpoint? That's my first question. And my second question is coming back into beauty. You talk about the unwind of demand of soap in Q2. Can you tell us whether you also benefited strongly in Q3, Q4 last year and whether that unwind will last for H2? And just to come back to the previous question on margin, mid-term. It seems that 10% may not be the mid-term margin you're looking at, neither was 17%. But where do we stand really on what profitability this category can deliver?

So let me start with Adhesive Technology part. I think it's difficult to compare with individual competitors in our sector because you know that the Adhesives part is more or less -- our Adhesives business is more or less the only company who's really covering all sectors in the adhesives field where you could see adhesives. And one thing is for sure, the implementation of the pricing initiatives is really progressing according to plan. You can see that if you look at quarter 1 and quarter 2. Half year now is at 1.2% pricing. And Marco mentioned it already, we do assume that the pricing will be definitely significant higher in half year 2 compared to half year 1. That's the first statement. And the other statement is also very clear, we will bring these pricing 100% through. That means that there will be also an effect to 2022 because we have always talked about that there is a certain time lag between addressing the pricings to our customers and how we -- when we will see it in our P&L. So therefore, the pricing will be also seen -- or the higher pricing will be also seen in 2022 without giving now a guidance on that. And second part of your first question was on the margin of Adhesives. I think what should I say in terms of, I think, what you see in terms of top line and bottom line is really a very good development. And in that part, we will continue to see further parts going also into the future. Second part was more -- was to the Beauty Care. Also here, 2 parts of your question. First of all, the soap topic. The soap topic is very clear. You asked, do we see that also in Q3 and Q4 of last year? Clear answer is yes, because the whole peak of soap and antibacterial situation in terms of within the COVID situation was definitely also be seen in the whole year of 2022 with -- sorry, 2020 with extreme peaks in Q2 of last with peaks, but also for sure seeing that in Q3 and Q4 of last year. And to your margin question, the topic between where we are today and the 17%, I hope to understand that I will not give a guidance on that where we are. I clearly said that the level which we are is not the level which we see going forward. You know that we also have new management onboard, and we are also here developing our plans and our strategies going forward. And therefore, I can't explicitly mention anything on that here. Hopefully, you understand me on that part.

We will now take our last question from the line of Christian Faitz from Kepler.

Two questions, please. Again, coming back to the raw materials. Can you please give us a rough idea of your contract duration with key raw material suppliers, such as plastic or as cyanide producers? Is this 1 month, 3 months, 6 months? It would be helpful to know. Second, can you please elucidate a bit more the headwinds in procurement and logistics you are still facing in Laundry Home in the U.S.?

I think both questions should be taken by Marco, the raw material part and also the headwinds in logistics and...

Good. Maybe I'll start with the headwinds in procurement, logistics, North America laundry. So we talked about it already in the last call. North America, we see a particular difficult situation when it comes to raw material supplies, but also in logistics. One driver coming still from Q1 was related to the polar vortex weather topic, which had a huge impact on the whole chemical industry in the first quarter. And we basically said already back then that, that will fully impact in the second quarter, and the impact is both in certain shortages of certain raw materials and, of course, in the overall price situation. And the shortages hit us, in particular, in our Laundry Care business when it comes to certain raw materials like liquid sheets and boosters, nonwovens, impacting some of our products. Also, the logistics market is exceptionally tight. And in this order, in particular in North America, we see high double-digit percent increases in freight rates in the market also affecting on-time performance is deteriorating since the first quarter. We also see that retailer supply chains are stressed. So also the supply chain that is organized by our customers, to be clear. Also, full warehouses, labor shortages, and that also means customer pickups are constrained. Overall, let me give you a number on the market overall in the U.S. Overall market occupancy of warehouses in the U.S. is in the high 90s, and in some regions, even up to 99%. So a very, very unusual and exceptional situation in North America. And the whole team is concentrating to work through that. We have task forces in place dealing with that situation, of course, trying also to prioritize certain products and customers where possible. But that is actually the market situation we're in, and we are working through that. So to the first question on raw materials, contract durations, et cetera. Of course, that differs a bit by business unit, but the -- now looking at the weighted average duration of our price agreements for all direct materials that is circa, on average, 2 months. Most spend, around 75% is in time intervals up to 3 months and 20% of spend is with price agreements between 3 to 9 months. And beyond that, beyond the 9 months, there's not much of significance. But that is why we also have a time lag that we talked about earlier. And also, as a result of that, as we said, in another context, the raw material price increases will hit us, P&L-wise, in particular in the second half, although, of course, we had impacts in the first half.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand back to Mr. Knobel for any closing remarks.

So thank you very much for your questions, and let me close today's presentation with a summary of our key takeaways. So in a really highly challenging business environment, we delivered an overall very strong performance in the first half of 2021. That goes for both on the top and the bottom line, with growth really across all business units and regions and particular strength in our Adhesive Technologies business. While we are successfully capturing these opportunities emerging from the strong economic recovery, we are managing also the volatile business environment and the unprecedented situation in the supply markets with real agility, with entrepreneurial spirit and also resilience. We sustained our strong financial foundation, our low debt levels, and give us significant flexibility also in terms of working towards the future. And we are updating our 2021 outlook, expecting here a stronger top line while incorporating also strong input cost pressure in the margin guidance. Bottom line, our outlook for adjusted EPS remains unchanged. And finally, we gained momentum by executing our purposeful growth agenda, really with full force, and we are committed to win the '20s together with you through purposeful growth. So as always, please be reminded of our upcoming events. So our next event will be the release of our Q3 sales performance on November 10. With this, I would like to thank you for joining our call today. Take care. Stay safe. And also, stay healthy. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you for joining today's Henkel conference call, and we wish you a pleasant day.