Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, I would like to open this year's Annual General Meeting of Henkel AG and Coke AG, AA and I would like to welcome you on behalf of the Supervisory Board, the Shareholders' Committee and the Management Board. I should also like to welcome the media representatives and I would like to thank them for their interest in Henkel. With your coverage and your judgment, you contribute to the understanding of important economic topics and developments for your readers, our shareholders and the public at large. We invited you to today's AGM by a publication of the invitation in the Federal Gazette on 21st February 2019. On the same day, we also disseminated the invitation in Europe via the media and Evidence on the publication of the convocation in the Federal Gazette is also available to our acting notary, Doctor.
Zimmermann. I'd like to welcome you Doctor. Zimmermann. The required notifications, in particular to the Credit Institutes and Shareholder Associations to be forwarded to our shareholders, have been done in due time. I therefore state that the convocation to this Annual General Meeting has been done in due time and to form in line with the requirements and the articles of associations.
There are no counter motions or alternative supervisory board of the company are all in attendance and likewise the members of the management board. Let us talk about the composition of our executive body. Since the last Annual General Meeting, there have been the following changes in our Supervisory Board and Shareholder Committee. In view of the new election to the employee representatives, effective as of the expiry of last year's AGM on 9th April 2000, the following resigned from the supervisory board. Winfried Sander, Peter Hausmann and Angelica Kelleher.
The new members elected to the Supervisory Boards are Peter Emmerich, Dirk Tiete and Michael Vasiliadis. The remaining members were reelected. Now on the part of the shareholders, Johan Christoph Frey resigned from the supervisory board. He now joined the shareholder committee and in his view Mr. Philip Scholz was elected.
We thank the members who resigned from the supervisory board for their commitment during the last Annual General Meeting. A specific or a particular word of thank you was addressed to Mr. Zander, who had been a member of the supervisory board for almost 25 years. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there are also some changes on the management board, Catherine Menckes, who was responsible for HR and will resign by mutual agreement from the management board upon termination of today's meeting. Mrs.
Menckes has been working for Henkel for more than 20 years. And since October 2011, she has been responsible for HR and sustainability on the board. And she has provided important impetus in the field of HR, has actually launched many concepts and developments and also she boosted the topic of sustainability. Dear Mrs. Menckes, I would like to use this opportunity to thank you on behalf of all our executive bodies.
Sabine Nicole is going to take over from Mrs. Mingus. Effective as from 9th of April 2019, she has been appointed as member to the management board. Mrs. Nicole has been working for Henkel since 1996 in 2013 where she was responsible for the HR segment of Henkel Beauty Care.
In 2015, she changed again to the operational business and was in charge for Henkel Beauty Care's retail business in Europe and was also responsible for global sales at Beauty Care. Since 2018, Mrs. Nicole has been responsible for Global Human Resources in Henkel's HR organization. Mrs. Nichol, the best of success to you with this new responsibility.
We're very pleased that we have been able to appoint a very experienced manager from within our own ranks to this position. Could you briefly get up so that everyone will be able to see you? Thank you so much. So much on the changes that we have implemented in our executive bodies. I should also like to thank Mr.
Rohrbach and Mrs. Zalsman from KPMG AG Werchafts Prufungsgesellschaft, our auditors who are in attendance. Before we start on the agenda, I should like to thank all employees both male and female of Henkel who have contributed to the organization and implementation of this AGM. Before we will take a look at the agenda, I would like to make some organizational announcements. The information on the organization of our meeting are contained in an information leaflet that has been available on our website since the convocation of this AGM.
Please comply with these instructions and I will repeat the most essential points and I would like to point out that my communicated instructions will enjoy priority over the information in the leaflet. The area of attendance are the rooms accessible to our shareholders on the 1st floor of Stathalle within the admission controls. It is only possible to cast a vote in this meeting hall and this is also the place where it will be possible to raise questions or make comments. We will have audio and video transmission to the rooms on the 1st floor of Stathalle. There's audio transmission to any of the adjacent rooms of the area of attendance.
You are leaving this atrium when you pass the checkout counter on the 1st floor. This meeting is a non smoking meeting. Smoking is therefore only permitted outside the assembly areas. Please consume any food and drinks in the restaurant only. I would also kindly ask you to switch off your mobile phones as long as you're in this meeting room.
It's not permitted to make telephone calls in here. Holders of ordinary and preferred shares have actually received, Carnet of voting cards. If you have any preferred shares, your voting card block also entitles you to attend this meeting for this AGM. If you have several admission cards, please check that you have received all the voting cards for these admission cards so that we consider your shares in full. As we will apply the subtraction approach, we will we are required to keep exact account of admission.
Please do not leave the meeting without actually checking out at the checkout counters and presenting all your voting card kenies. If you want to leave without checking out, you will be considered in attendance. Likewise, your votes will be counted in the votes and will be counted as yes votes in the sense of our headquarters unless there's any change to the voting process. If you want to leave before casting a vote, it is possible to grant proxies or authorize a 3rd person. We will have the corresponding forms on your Carnes.
If you want to authorize a 3rd person, you may use the form to authorize a 3rd person. Please use this card from your voting carnet and hand it to the person who with whom you would like to authorize. Please present this authorization form at the checkout counter. You may also appoint official representatives of the company and authorize them. Please use the form on the authorization with instructions.
Please use the front page of this card and please tick the boxes where you want to vote no or abstain from voting. In order to cast your vote, please use the pens handed out or a black or blue pen. Please do not use a red pen because this will not ensure a correct counting of the votes. Please hand over the entire Kaneo voting cards and the authorization form with your instructions at the checkout desk. I would like to point out that pursuant to Section 135 of the Stock Corporation Act any authorized credit institutions, shareholder associations and authorized persons may only sub authorize people who are not their employees if such a sub authorization is actually envisaged.
In order to give shareholders who cannot attend the meeting access to any explanations on the annual financial statement, we will cast the speech of our Chairman of the Board, Mr. Van Beijen, on the web. Any shareholders who are not able to attend the meeting may actually cast their votes or grant authorization for casting the votes, which will be possible until the end of Mr. Van Bylen's speech. There's no recording audio or video recording of other parts of this AGM.
And I would like to point out that it is not permitted to make your own audio or video recordings. I would also like to mention that we do not compile a stenographic record. At the moment, we are preparing the directory of attendance and I will announce attendance prior to the first vote. This directory is available at the admission terminal at the information desk and is available for inspection. We are continuously updating attendance and the updates are also available for inspection at the admission counter.
As in previous years, we will have a joint debate on all the agenda items after the speech of our Chairman of the Management Board. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to take the floor after Mr. Van Beiland's speech, I would like to ask you to give us a written request for the floor at the speaker's desk. Please provide your name and the number of your voting carnet and then the agenda items on which you wish to speak. We have corresponding forms available at the speaker's desk, which is left of this stage.
If you wish to file any motions or counter motions, please submit them in writing and submit it to the speakers' desk together with your request for the floor. 1 of our assistants will also take a record of your motion, which makes it easier to assess what to do with this motion and to give the floor to the person who filed the motion. In order to be able to have a swift proceeding, I would like to ask all speakers to be brief to focus on the agenda items and specific questions, which allow for the proper assessment of the agenda items. If necessary, I will actually restrict the Q and A time in the interest of all shareholders in attendance. After completion of the general debate, we will vote on all the agenda items in one go, but I will come back to the details later.
They are also contained in the information leaflet available through the Internet. So much on the formality. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start with the agenda. As mentioned, we will have a general debate on all agenda items. Regarding agenda items 12 of the agenda, I would like to inform you that the following documents were available on our website.
First of all, the annual financial statement and the consolidated financial statement, the financial statement and the consolidated financial statement, the management report for the company and the group, including the explanatory notes on the corporate governance, remuneration system and the details to be provided in line with Section 289A and 315 of the German commercial code, the proposal for the appropriation of the net profit and the report of the supervisory board on fiscal 2018. Other relevant documents on the AGM were also available on our website. As we announced last year, we have actually in the sense of sustainability and with the provisions of the German Stock Corporation Law, we have converted our annual report to an online version only. We focus on digital reporting, which means that there is no printed version of the annual report anymore, which is available for inspection at this AGM. But it's not only for sustainability reasons that we have decided to do that.
We also take account of a change in user behavior. And this is what other DAX listed companies do as well. You will find the online version of the annual report on our website and also on the screens available. Our sustainability report is also available on the web and it also contains a non financial declaration. As you can see from the agenda, there are also additional agenda items aside from the usual regular items and I will actually explain them before we start the general debate.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Van Beylen will now talk about financial the financial year 2018 and other important questions relevant for the company. Mr. Van Beiln, you have the floor.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, dear friends of the Henko Group, a warm welcome to our Annual General Meeting. On behalf of the management board and on behalf of our employees around the world, I'd like to begin with Henkel's development in 2018. How did we perform in the various regions? How did our 3 business units develop? How did our market environment change?
And how was all this reflected in our results? I would then like to take a look ahead. How will we position ourselves going forward? What are our strategic priorities? What are our expectations for 2019 and for the future?
But first, a review of the recent past. Overall, 2018 was a successful year for Henkel, particularly in view of the difficult underlying conditions we encountered. Here, I'd like to especially mention the impact of foreign exchange effects. They never have been as strong as in 2018. In total, €1,100,000,000 We also faced strongly increasing prices for direct materials.
This was also a burden on our business. In addition, the global economic environment deteriorated. There were various reasons for this. The controversies on global free trade, the position of further trade tariffs, the slowdown of Chinese growth and the uncertainties regarding Brexit. At the beginning of 2018, further challenges arose from within our own company.
Delivery difficulties in our consumer goods businesses in North America. I reported to you on this at the last Annual General Meeting. We've taken decisive action, and we're able to solve the problems in the course of the Q2. Our service quality in North America is now at a higher level than before. Despite these challenges, 2018 was a good year for Henkel.
We continued to generate profitable growth. We achieved good organic growth, and we posted new highs in terms of earnings and profitability. We strengthened our businesses also through acquisitions. At the same time, we maintained our high cost focus. We pursued our strategic priorities with redoubled effort, and we successfully implemented numerous strategic initiatives.
We further drove the digital transformation of Henkel. We strengthened our sustainability efforts in all areas. We further improved our competitiveness and have thus laid the foundations for a successful future of Henkel. This is a result of the commitment of our employees in the 1st place. 53,000 Henkel people around the world.
It is they who made 2018 a successful year for Henkel with their dedication, their entrepreneurial spirit and their focus on our customers. For this, I would like to thank all of them on behalf of the entire management board, And I'm sure I'm also speaking on behalf of you, our esteemed shareholders. Let us now take a detailed look at our business performance in 2018. Organic sales growth came in at 2.4%, excluding the impact of foreign exchange effects and acquisitions divestments. These influences were particularly high in 2018, especially through currency developments.
Their total resulting impact on sales was around €1,100,000,000 Nevertheless, we achieved €19,900,000,000 in sales and were thus approximately level with the previous year. We achieved new highs on the earnings side. The adjusted EBIT, that is earnings before interest and tax, rose once more to €3,500,000,000 that is. This is the highest operating profit figure ever reported by Henkel. Adjusted return on sales increased to 17.6%, and that too is a new high.
Adjusted earnings per preferred share rose to €6.01 which is an increase of 2.7% over the previous year. And that too is a new high. Without foreign exchange effects, growth would have amounted to 7%. Our free cash flow also showed a very good development with a rise to €1,900,000,000 This meant we were also able to further reduce our net debt. As of year end 2018, this amounted to around €2,900,000,000 Financially, Henkel is very healthy.
We're generating growth from within. We have a high level of profitability. We're generating free cash flows to further invest in our businesses. We have low debt exposure and outstanding ratings. So in short, we have all possibilities to actively shape our own future.
But more on this later. 1st, I'd like to report on our sales performance in the regions and also in our business units. Again, we posted very strong growth in the emerging markets with a rise of 6.3%. Sales there emerged to €8,100,000,000 which is tantamount to 40% of our total sales. Sales in the mature markets came in at €11,700,000,000 slightly below the figure for the previous year.
We generated growth in all regions except North America. This was due primarily to the delivery difficulties in our consumer goods businesses. Let's now have a look at our 3 business units. Adhesive Technologies is Henkel's biggest business unit. It generates around half of our total sales and half of our earnings.
We're the world market leader in the adhesives business. We have a global footprint, and we have all the technologies of importance in this industry. This makes us a strong partner for customers in many different sectors. For them, we're developing high impact solutions. Other innovations enhance the food safety of packaging.
They make cell phones or tablets more efficient. They make cars lighter and smarter and they help to better insulate buildings. And those are just a few of the fields of application covered. In 2018, Adhesive Technologies generated strong organic sales growth of 4%. In all, reported sales amounted to €9,400,000,000 a level similar to that of the previous year.
All business areas contributed to the strong organic sales growth. In particular, in the general industry business, we achieved significant increases. We also achieved strong growth in other business areas, including packaging adhesives, electronics and adhesives for consumers, craftsmen and building, accompanied by good growth in the transport and metal business area. The positive trends are also reflected in earnings. Adjusted return on sales rose to 18.7%, which made Adhesive Technologies a major driver of our profitable growth in the past year.
Let's go on with our 2nd business unit, Beauty Care. Here, we generated sales of almost €4,000,000,000 in 2018, which is an increase of 2.1%. However, organic sales development was slightly down by minus 0.7%. At Beauty Care, we have 2 large business areas. First, there's the professional business with hair salons.
Here, we now achieve an annual sales figure of over €1,000,000,000 That's approximately a quarter of our Beauty Care business. This business area was again very successful in 2018 with strong growth posted in organic sales. Then we have the Retail business with products for consumers. Mainly, these are the categories of hair care, hair styling and hair coloring, but also oral Care and personal Care says that the retail business was at around €3,000,000,000 Within the retail business, performance was split. Results with respect to hair care products showed a downturn.
Conversely, our colorants business were very successful and the same goes for hair styling. Despite the challenges, Beauty Care was able to sustain its high level of profitability. Adjusted return on sales amounted to 17.1%. Our 3rd business unit is Laundry and Home Care. Homebuy posted a good performance in 2018.
Sales grew by 1.9% organically. Reported sales decreased year on year by 3.5%, primarily due to the strong currency effects from exchange. Here, too, we have 2 business areas: Laundry Care and Home Care. Both posted good organic sales performance in 2018. Growth in the Laundry Care business area was attributable particularly to successful innovations.
The strongest contribution came our top from our top brand Persil. With Persil, we have a presence in over 60 countries around the world. In 2018, we generated sales of €1,300,000,000 with this brand, representing growth of around 8%. In the Home Care business area, our strongest growth drivers were hand dishwashing products and toilet care products. Rondian Home Care was able to further improve its EBIT margin with an increase to 18.1%.
So much for Henkel's business performance in fiscal 20 18. I think we have every right to say that overall, this has been a good year into financial terms, and we want you to be a part of this development, you, that is our shareholders. Therefore, we propose to you today a dividend of €1.85 per preferred share. For ordinary shares, the dividend would be €1.83 as a proposal. That is an increase of 3.4% per category versus prior year.
The proposed dividends represent new highs. As our shareholders, our share price development is of interest for you. Overall, the stock market indices declined in the course of 2018. The DAX decreased by more than 18%. This also affected Henkel's share.
As of year end 2018, the price of Henkel preferred shares has decreased by 13.5% versus the prior year. However, this is better than the DAX and it's also better than many of our direct competitors. We're very well aware that the share price development doesn't meet your expectations and you may rest assured it hasn't met our expectations either. At Henkel, we are committed to generating sustainable value for our customers, for our employees and for you, our shareholders and for society. Therefore, we're pursuing a long term strategy.
We want to generate sustainable profitable growth. With Henkel 2020 plus we set ourselves clear ambitions for the future for 2020 beyond. Our 4 strategic priorities are driving growth, accelerating digitalization, increasing agility and funding growth. We've made very good progress in the implementation of our strategy. We realized a number of important strategic initiatives in 2018.
We want to drive growth in our markets around the world. For this, we're placing emphasis on innovations. We further accelerated the development of innovations in both our industrial and our consumer goods businesses. Close cooperation with customers is also a key success factor. They provide inspiration.
Together with them, we develop new businesses. In 2018, we laid the cornerstone at Dislaw for a new innovation center for adhesive technologies. It's an investment of more than €130,000,000 From next year onwards, it will house 3 50 researchers and application specialists. We will also be receiving our customers here from all sectors and from around the world. This is the largest single investment that we've ever made at our Dusseldorf site.
It's a clear commitment underpinning the importance of innovation, and it's a clear commitment to our primary site, our home site. But it's not only by leveraging our own strengths that we're driving growth. We've also acquired other businesses and operations. Acquisitions are part of our strategy. In 2018, we made good progress in the integration of acquired businesses.
We also made further acquisitions in our industrial business and in our consumer businesses right around the world. These acquisitions complement our portfolio and they strengthen our competitiveness. We're opening up new sources of growth through our corporate venture capital unit. We're investing in new technologies and business models. We're investing in start ups and also in other venture funds.
We've earmarked around €150,000,000 for that. By the end of 2018, half of that figure had already been invested. Our second strategic priority is accelerate digitalization. We want to strengthen our digital businesses. Henkel's digital sales increased organically double digit after adjusting for foreign exchange.
Particularly in our consumer businesses, organic growth was very good with a plus of more than 30%. We've made further targeted investments aligned to Industry 4.0 in our production and logistics, that is to say, our supply chain. We are now collecting more than 1,000,000,000 data points per day. This enables optimal control of our facilities. We are able to improve the use of their capacities, We can precisely measure our energy consumption or water usage.
We are able to better plan maintenance work. This leads to high quality, increasing cost efficiency, and also more sustainability in our production activities.
We have redoubling our efforts in driving Henkel's digital transformation. Henkel X is an important platform enabling us to further accelerate the digital transformation. We've established an exclusive network. This allows access to around 150 external mentors, including founders, digital experts and thought leaders. They support and advise our employees in their digital projects and initiatives.
We're strengthening the digital skills of our employees. There is now a digital test that allows them to determine their level of expertise. We then tailor our support to their needs with training offers aligned to their responsibilities. Our 3rd priority is increasing agility throughout the organization. We're increasing openness to change so that we can react more quickly and flexibly to the opportunities and challenges arising in our environment.
We're strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit among our employees and within our teams. We're breaking down hierarchies. We're encouraging individual responsibility and are creating more scope for initiatives to enable ideas and business models to come more quickly to fruition. To this end, we developed new guidelines on collaboration and leadership. This is what we refer to as leadership commitments.
They're binding for all employees worldwide. Our 4th strategic priority is funding growth. For this, we have 4 major specific initiatives. From 2020, they're expected to generate annual efficiency gains of more than €500,000,000 Here we made very good progress in 2018. We already achieved more than half of the targeted efficiency gains.
Ladies and gentlemen, we at Henkel are very proud of our success in the field of sustainable development. Our leading position was once again recognized in 2018. We're at the top of all major rankings and ratings relevant to our industry. And we continue to make progress in all fields as well as across the entire value chain. A particular focus is the responsible use of plastics.
Plastic waste has become a serious problem worldwide. But in particular, with regard to the pollution of oceans, everyone needs to be involved in finding a solution. Plastics manufacturers, consumer goods industry, retail partners, consumers and governments, we can only find a solution together. We're contributing by focusing on 3 areas. 1st, the usage of sustainable materials secondly, the development of smart packaging designs and thirdly, closing the loop of raw materials.
Today, more than 80% of our packaging is recyclable reusable or compostable. Over the next few years, this figure will rise to 100%. At the same time, we're using more and more recycled plastics in our packaging. We're also involved in a number of different initiatives and partnerships. For example, with Plastic Bank, an organization that provides plastic collection centers in countries that have not had not yet have a recycling system.
The 1st tank of products with plastics from these initiatives are already on the market. Or as founding member of the Global Alliance to End Plastic Waste, this is an initiative of around 30 international corporations. Together, we aim to develop new approaches to reducing plastic waste. Our strong sustainability performance is also appreciated by investors. Last year, we agreed a green credit line of €1,500,000,000 In simplified terms, we act more sustainably and the interest rates on our loans are getting cheaper.
So as you can see, sustainability at Enkel has many dimensions and we're making progress in each of them because sustainable thinking and acting are important to us. They are part of our corporate culture and of our values. And for a good reason, because sustainability is a competitive edge. This is becoming increasingly important for our customers in all sectors. We stand by our social obligations and we act with concrete measures.
We offer all our employees in Germany attractive safeguards against major misfortunes, against occupational disability, with a generous insurance policy against illnesses through the comprehensive provision of preventive medical checkups and with our own nursing care insurance as the first company in the DAX in Germany. We also promote diversity at Henkel because for us having a diverse workforce is a success factor. We operate in more than 100 countries worldwide. We generate more than 85% of our sales abroad. 4 out of 5 Henkel employees work outside Germany.
Here are our markets, our customers and our partners. Hence, we need a high level of diversity among our employees. This relates to different nationalities and cultural diversity, but also to the proportion of women in our workforce, in management and in our corporate bodies. Within the DUCs, we are right at the top of the league in this regard. This is confirmed, for example, by Sally carried out by the Boston Consulting Group at the end of 2018.
Diversity, cultural tolerance, mutual respect, despite all differences. These are the underlying principles for the successful development of a globally active company. This is also why we support a united Europe, taking as a whole, Europe is an economic area with around 500,000,000 people, a free movement for workers, for capital, for innovations and ideas and for entrepreneurs with high standards for the protection of the environment and of citizens. We have clear interest in a strong Europe even though there is much to do. We have therefore joined the call to participate in the European elections in May and encourage our employees to vote to use their vote to ensure that Europe remains successful as a competitive player on the international markets for the future and to ensure that Europe continues to represent freedom and prosperity.
President Edron, so much for the development in fiscal 2018. Now I'd like to take a look forward to the current fiscal year and the following years. As you know, we are pursuing a long term strategy with clear priorities. We're making very good progress in the implementation. And we're financially healthy with all the funds necessary to shape our future and to seize growth opportunities.
We'll do so even more in the future. We'll further invest in growth €300,000,000 more starting this year, focuses on our consumer goods business and digital transformation. Henkel has already invested heavily in the past. Last year alone, we spent more than €800,000,000 in property, plant and equipment. Year after year, we invest around €500,000,000 into research and development and we're investing hugely in our brands and technologies.
These increased investments will affect our results this year. This is also reflected in our outlook for 2019. This announcement on January 21, no doubt came as a surprise to you, our shareholders. The same store share price fell significantly in the course of the day. Shortly thereafter, a number of similar announcements were made by several major well known competitors from Germany, but also from the international environment.
We're convinced we have taken the right decision for Henkel and for the long term success of our company. I would therefore now like to explain to you our our specific initiatives and measures that we plan. At Adhesives Technologies, we're focusing on 3 major growth trends. 1st, mobility. This is also is all about alternative drives, autonomous driving and lightweight design.
2nd trend is connectivity, which addresses the world of mobile devices, the Internet of Things and the digital infrastructure. The 3rd trend is sustainability. This relates to the use of renewable raw materials, energy efficiency and the circular economy. Adhesive Technologies offer solutions to all to our customers in all three spheres. In Air Care, we're driving growth with innovations, particularly in the hair care segment.
This, we are in the process of completely revising our successful and well known brands. We're also rolling out young recently launched brands more quickly to other markets. And we are launching a series of completely new brands onto the market. We also intend to boost growth in North America and gain market share. To this end, we're strengthening our core business, particularly in the Body Care segment.
We're also expanding our business with hair colorants with new product lines and variants. And we're gaining entry into new categories, for example, with products for men. And finally, we continue to drive our strong growth in the hair salon business with new brands and new formulations. This brings me to the growth initiatives of the Laundry and Home Care Business Unit. 1 of our focuses will be on our best known brand Persil with with the with the world's first four chamber system for best performance and convenience.
Another focus is North America. We're implementing numerous initiatives to increase growth. We are launching our new caps there for all Henkel's laundry detergent brands. Many existing brands are being re launched with new formulations and new design and we're extending the reach of successful brands to new segments. And finally, we're strengthening our Home Care business with the relaunch of leading brands with new technologies and a new line which follows the trend towards sustainable products.
We also accelerate our digital transformation with additional investments throughout the company, investing in digital commerce, analytics and infrastructure. We're intensifying cooperation with important partners in e commerce. Therefore, we have developed new packaging, especially suitable for transportation and we'll be using concentrate formulations for our products. That way, we save weight and volume. We're also investing in new analytical methods in Industry 4.0 and modern automation and robotic solutions.
We're strengthening our digital infrastructure. Added to this, our investments in cybersecurity that means the security of our networks and systems. Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, we have set ourselves a great many goals in order to lead Henkel into a successful future. We continue to operate in a difficult environment, One Care cries by uncertainty and volatility. A place of growth in industrial production was already slowing in the second half of twenty eighteen.
For 2019, we expect a good but generally lower level of growth momentum. The consumer goods markets continue to show a mixed picture. Competition remains fierce and the high price pressure is unrelenting. This applies particularly to the relevant material markets. We expect the overall foreign exchange rates in 2019 to be weaker than last year.
However, we still anticipate a burden in the low single digit percentage range. Fluctuations on the raw material markets will persist. Here, we expect to rise by a low single digit percentage. And that brings me to our outlook for 2019. We anticipate seeing the first success from our initiatives already this year.
However, our 2019 results will be affected by our additional investments. Specifically, we expect the following: all three business units to achieve organic sales growth of between 2% 4% adjusted EBIT margin in the range of between 16% 17% and adjusted earnings per preferred share in the mid single percentage range below prior year at constant exchange rates. We want to generate sustainable profitable growth in the future, and we want to achieve attractive returns. This is also reflected in our medium term to long term financial ambition for 2020 beyond. We want to generate organic sales growth of between 2% 4%.
We want to achieve growth in adjusted earnings per preferred share in the mid to high single digit percentage range at constant exchange rates. And we also continue to focus on expanding our free cash flow. In addition, we intend to continue seizing promising growth opportunities and to implement them successfully. At the same time, we'll continue to focus on margin and maintain our strict cost discipline. We'd like to involve you, our shareholders, in this development even more in the future.
Hence, we have raised the target corridor for our dividend payout ratio, Effective in fiscal as of fiscal 2019, the range will increase to between 30% 40%. Previously, it was between 25% 35%. To close, let me briefly summarize. 2018 was a successful year for Henkel. We were able to generate profitable growth with new highs in earnings, returns and dividend.
We made further progress in the field of sustainability and will increase further our investments in growth and digitalization going forward. In formation of our strategy, we've expanded our medium- to long term financial ambitions for 2020 beyond. For our shareholders, we want to achieve sustainable profitable growth and offer you attractive returns. Ladies and gentlemen, at this point, I'd like to thank our supervisory board bodies and on behalf of the Henkel Management Board for their valuable support, for their advice, for their expertise and the constructive discussions. Very much appreciate the exchange with you.
I'd especially like to express my thanks to you, Doctor. Bajan Tras. You play a key role in ensuring this high level of excellent collaboration between the management board and the supervisor bodies. I want to personally thank you for the good and trust based collaboration. I also want to join I also want to join in the words of gratitude expressed to Katharine Menges.
Dear Katharine, you've moved mountains for Henkel as Board Member and Head of HR and also in your role as Sustainability Lead. You were a great colleague to all of us and I always very much enjoyed working together with you. Wish you all the best for the future. Esteemed shareholders, of course, we also want to thank you for your continued trust and support, particularly in challenging times. And finally, we'd also like to thank our customers and consumers for their trust in our company, in our brands and innovations.
We remain true to our commitment to continue creating sustainable value for all of you. Thank you very much for your kind attention.