Saint-Gobain posts record sales in quarter, flags rising costs
(Reuters) – French building supplies group Saint-Gobain on Thursday posted document first-quarter gross sales however flagged the upper affect of vitality and uncooked materials prices in 2022 amid a difficult geopolitical scenario and provide chain points.
Saint-Gobain, which manufactures and distributes supplies in sectors starting from automotive to well being, safety, and meals and drinks, additionally confirmed its earlier goal of incomes the next 2022 working earnings versus 2021 at comparable change charges, amid good momentum in its principal markets.
The group mentioned, nevertheless, it expects accelerating inflation to lift its vitality and uncooked materials prices by round 2.5 billion euros in 2022 in comparison with 2021, when its invoice amounted to 1.5 billion euros, or 3% of gross sales.
“This inflation considerations specifically vitality prices, particularly in Europe the place the Group has hedged round 80% of its pure gasoline and electrical energy purchases for 2022 as a complete,” it added in its quarterly earnings assertion.
The corporate’s gross sales of 12 billion euros ($12.60 billion) for the three months via March, up 16.4% on a like-for-like foundation from a 12 months earlier, had been pushed by renovation in Europe and building within the Americas and Asia.
Saint-Gobain mentioned it had drawn up numerous plans to proceed its operations in “delicate to Russian gasoline provides” Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, if Russia had been to cease the flows utterly.
It hopes to restrict the potential affect to round 2% of group gross sales, Chief Monetary Officer Sreedhar Natarajan mentioned in a convention name.
The group reiterated it has no manufacturing operations in Russia and had cancelled all its funding initiatives within the nation.
($1 = 0.9527 euros)
(Reporting by Dagmarah Mackos and Dina Kartit; Modifying by Edmund Blair and Bernadette Baum)
