German retailer Henkel on Tuesday withdrew its forecast for fiscal 2020, saying the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the impact of measures to contain it had made business performance unpredictable.

Across all business units and functions, Henkel is responding to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic with specific measures. Nevertheless, it is currently not possible to predict with sufficient reliability over what period and to what extent Henkel will face further impacts in fiscal 2020, and to what extent these can be offset by countermeasures.

As soon as it is possible to make a sufficiently reliable evaluation of the future business performance in 2020, Henkel will publish a corresponding forecast.

“The world is going through a very challenging period. First and foremost, people and communities in almost every country are affected by the spread of the coronavirus. But also businesses and economies worldwide are facing major challenges. In this difficult situation, the health and safety of our employees, customers and business partners have highest priority for us. We have taken early action and measures to protect them while ensuring business continuity under these unprecedented conditions,” said Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has worldwide reach and its further development is impossible to predict, we currently cannot make reliable projections for our business performance in 2020. But with our committed global team, their resilience and capabilities, as well as our strong balance sheet we are confident to master the crisis in the best way possible and to emerge stronger from this crisis,” Knobel added.

The development of Henkel in the first quarter of 2020 is already impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on preliminary results, Henkel expects overall organic sales growth for the Group of -0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

For the Adhesive Technologies business unit, Henkel expects organic sales growth of -4.1 percent for the first quarter. In this business, demand declined particularly in the automotive industry. Thanks to strong demand for Laundry & Home Care products, Henkel expects that the business unit has achieved organic sales growth of 5.5 percent in the first quarter. Beauty Care is expected to report a decline in organic sales of -3.9 percent. While the hair salon business was significantly impacted by the closure of hairdressing stores ordered by many authorities, the organic sales growth of the retail business compared to the previous year was stable.