The upside of supermarket skirmishes for toilet paper.

 

Personal care and hygiene company Asaleo Care has reported revenue growth of 4.6 per cent for its B2B business in the first half of 2020.

 

The company said it experienced “significant demand” for its products during the initial stages of COVID-19, driven by demand from customers who sought adequate stock levels of critical products including soaps, sanitisers, towel and wiping and cleaning products, as well as incontinence products for the aged care sector. 

 

“Our trans-Tasman manufacturing footprint enabled us to quickly respond to the surge in demand. As lockdown measures were maintained later in the first half, a drop in away-from-home activity negatively impacted sales to the hospitality, office cleaning and education sectors,” the company said.

 

The impact was softened by an increase in demand for hygiene consumables in the healthcare and food processing sectors while sales of its high margin, proprietary ‘Hero Systems’ continued to increase. 

 

TENA Healthcare revenue increased by 11 per cent, with underlying growth in demand from the residential aged care and in-home care sectors. Tork Professional Hygiene revenue increased 2.5 percent notwithstanding the COVID-19 lockdown measures adversely impacting end customers. 

 

Asaleo’s B2B EBITDA was up 17.3 per cent to $24.4 million as a result of the higher sales volumes and lower pulp costs. 

 

The company said the the COVID-19 panic buying that occurred in March and April had a positive impact on the first half result, however it anticipated this will continue to unwind in the second half of the year. 

 

The on-going lockdown measures are also expected to continue to temporarily dampen away-from-home activity and therefore demand in the professional hygiene business.