Colgate-Palmolive achieves organic growth in Q1 2015

Colgate-Palmolive has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2015, during which it delivered a worldwide net sales total of $4.07 billion (2.69 billion pounds).

This represented a six percent decline on the same period last year, but this was mostly attributable to unfavourable currency conversion trends. Global unit volume grew by 1.5 percent and pricing rose by 2.5 percent, resulting in organic sales growth of four percent.

Its improved underlying performance was driven primarily by emerging markets, with the firm's leading share of the global toothpaste market rising to 45.2 percent, up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.

Colgate was also able to tighten its grip on the worldwide toothbrush market, with the UK highlighted as a region in which the company enjoyed volume gains.

Ian Cook, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Colgate-Palmolive, said: "We are pleased to have started the year with solid organic sales growth and higher profitability as a percent to sales, despite significant foreign currency headwinds."

Further organic sales growth is anticipated for the full-year, backed by upcoming product launches, in spite of challenging macroeconomic conditions and foreign exchange volatility.