P&G hikes forecast on sustained Covid-led demand for cleaning products

Procter & Gamble Co raised its annual sales and earnings forecasts on Tuesday, as coronavirus-driven home cleaning pushed sales of the consumer goods giant's home care products as much as 30 per cent higher.

P&G's shares, up 14 per cent this year, rose another 2 per cent after the numbers suggested consumers are spending the cash they have saved by traveling and socializing less this year on its higher-priced branded goods.

The maker of Tide and Ariel detergent has also benefited from people washing their clothes more often and its organic sales overall rose 9 per cent in the first quarter.

Grooming products also saw their first rise in sales growth since the start of the year, as electronic stores in Europe placed more orders for trimmers and other styling products.

Although demand from retailers remains elevated, the company cautioned it would not stay at levels seen during the July-September period, when most economies relaxed lockdowns and orders picked up.

Sales of home care products like Mr Clean rose by double-digits percentages across its regions and those of personal cleansing products were up 30 per cent, P&G's finance chief, Jon Moeller, said.

That showed the resilience of its branded goods, Moeller said, while calling out a decline in the share of store-branded labels in the United States and Europe.

P&G said it now expects full-year sales to rise 3 per cent to 4 per cent, compared with earlier forecasts of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

Earlier in the day, Lysol maker Reckitt Benckiser also lifted its full-year outlook, showing demand was still healthy in the industry despite tough economic conditions.

"There's just ... a willingness to spend just a little bit more to ensure that I'm using a product that ... will work for me and for my family," Moeller said on a media call.

P&G also expects full-year core earnings per share to be up 5% to 8%, compared with 3 per cent to 7 per cent earlier, and said it would aim to buy back $7 billion to $9 billion in shares in fiscal 2021.