By Aisha Al-Muslim 

Procter & Gamble Co. reported its strongest quarterly sales growth in five years, driven by gains in the beauty segment, as the consumer-products giant snapped a stretch of lackluster growth.

The maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors said organic sales, a closely watched metric that strips out currency moves, acquisitions and divestitures, rose 4% in the fiscal first quarter

Beauty products fueled the gains, rising 7%, but the company reported growth across a number of categories including grooming, health care and fabric.

The Cincinnati-based company has struggled to boost sales in an industry facing more competition and higher costs of raw materials and transportation.

After more than a year of trying to combat weak demand by lowering prices, P&G recently changed course, saying it would charge more for its Pampers, Bounty, Charmin and Puffs brands. The increases, which the company said would go into effect later this year or in early 2019, have the potential to more broadly influence pricing and demand given P&G's size and clout. P&G said prices was neutral during the quarter.

Consumer-products makers got a boost this week when Unilever PLC and Nestlé SA said inflation in many markets allowed them to charge more for their products, fueling stronger sales for those companies in the latest quarter. Many consumer-goods makers in recent quarters have struggled to raise prices amid weak inflation, but commodity-price increases and a stronger U.S. dollar have changed that.

P&G said profit rose 12% to $3.2 billion, or $1.22 cents a share, in the first quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Net sales rose 0.2% to $16.69 billion from $16.65 billion, but unfavorable foreign-exchange fluctuations hurt sales by 3%.

Shares rose 4.4% to $83.80 in premarket trading Friday. Shares are down 12.4% in the past year.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at aisha.al-muslim@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2018 08:21 ET (12:21 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Procter and Gamble Charts.
Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Procter and Gamble Charts.