© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for Haleon and business information are displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By Natalie Grover and Maggie Fick
LONDON (Reuters) – Haleon, the world’s largest independent consumer health business with brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil pain relievers, on Thursday forecast organic revenue growth of 4-6% in 2023.
The company was created last July when British drugmaker GSK spun off its largest-listed consumer health business in Europe for more than a decade.
In his first results of the full year, CEO Brian McNamara said Haleon had navigated a highly volatile environment.
Players in consumer healthcare, like other sectors, have had to contend with sharp cost increases across the business, including raw materials, transportation and energy linked to the war in Ukraine and disruptions. persistent COVID-19.
Rivals to consumer health operations such as Bayer (OTC:) and Reckitt have charged higher prices to partly offset broader declines in sales volumes.
“Our organic revenue growth (full year)…was well balanced between volume and price, with two-thirds of the business gaining or retaining share,” McNamara said.
The London-listed company comprising healthcare assets formerly owned by GSK and Pfizer (NYSE:) reported organic revenue growth of 9% last year, just ahead of the 8-8.5% increase it had forecast for 2022.
Haleon’s respiratory health unit experienced organic growth of 32.6% to £1.6bn in 2022, helped by a strong cold and flu season with sales significantly above 2019 levels in North America and Europe in the fourth quarter, the company said.
Respiratory viruses have returned with a vengeance in the northern hemisphere in the first winter free of COVID-19 restrictions since the start of the pandemic.
In June, GSK had estimated that Haleon would experience 4-6% annual organic revenue growth over the next three to five years, beating some expectations given a typical industry average of 3-5%, according to barclays (LON:).
On Thursday, the company affirmed its medium-term guidance, saying it expects to incur £150m in restructuring costs in 2023 and 2024 to deliver savings of around £300m over the next three years.
In December, Haleon reduced its debt to around £9.9bn, from around £10.7bn three months earlier.