Good morning and welcome to Henkel Conference Call. For the duration of the call, you will be in listen only. If you would like to ask a question during the Q&A session, please press the star and one on your telephone keypad. If at any time you need assistance, please press the star and zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to Leslie Iltgen, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning and a warm welcome to everyone joining Henkel's Q3 2025 results conference call today. I'm Leslie Iltgen, Head of Henkel's Investor Relations. Today, I'm joined by our CEO, Carsten Knobel, and our CFO, Marco Swoboda. Carsten will begin with an overview of the key developments and highlights in the third quarter. Marco will then follow with a more detailed review of the company's financial performance. As always, following the presentation, we will open up the lines, and Carsten and Marco will be happy to take your questions. Before handing over to Carsten, please let me remind you that this call will be recorded and a replay will be made available on our Investor Relations website shortly after this call.
By asking a question during the Q&A session, you agree to both the live broadcasting as well as the recording of your question, including salutation, to be published on our website. Also, please be reminded that this presentation contains the usual formal disclaimer in regard to forward-looking statements within the meaning of relevant U.S. legislation. It can also be accessed via our website at henkel.com. As always, the presentation and discussion are conducted subject to this disclaimer. With this, it is my pleasure to hand over to our CEO, Carsten Knobel. Carsten, please go ahead.
Thank you, Leslie, and good morning to everybody. Warm welcome also from my side joining our conference call today. As always, we do appreciate your interest in our company, and we look forward to answering your questions. After walking you through the key developments in the third quarter, we will elaborate on Henkel's business performance and the full-year outlook in more detail. Let me move straight to the key topics and the highlights of the third quarter. In Q3, we saw a clear acceleration in our top-line development. Both business units recorded positive organic sales growth in the quarter. Starting with Adhesive Technologies, they showed a positive price and volume development, the latter being supported by a partial reversal of the negative working day impact we had seen in the first half, as well as by a continued strong performance in electronics and industrials.
Consumer Brands showed a positive volume development in the third quarter, which is encouraging to see. Also, the merger is in its final stages, and we will have successfully concluded the transformation of this business unit by the end of this year. With that, clearly one year ahead of plan compared to what we had originally expected when we started this journey. From a regional perspective, North America stood out with good organic sales growth supported by both business units. Further, I can also confirm that we continue to see a strong gross margin and the bottom-line development. In regards to our share buyback, we are well on track, having executed around EUR 700 million as of the end of October. Finally, when it comes to our full-year guidance, the ranges remain unchanged.
Let's now take a deeper look into our Adhesive Technologies business, where global megatrends like sustainability, mobility, connectivity, digitalization, and urbanization create ample opportunities for further growth and allow us to drive customer-driven innovations across many different industries and applications. More specifically, I would like to do a deep dive into the field of electronics today and showcase how these global megatrends translate into attractive growth opportunities with the solutions we offer. Driven by key industry trends such as the rise of AI, new ways to construct devices and components, or even regulatory changes such as the introduction of the right to repair, the different markets and industries where our electronic solutions come into play are undergoing a significant transformation. We can clearly observe how the scope and the value of material-based innovation is expanding.
The rapid advancements of artificial intelligence, where we enable cutting-edge solutions for globally leading industry players, the evolution of component and device design, which leverages our materials expertise, or the increasing regulatory focus on sustainability, which we facilitate through debonding technologies. These are only a couple of examples. Overall, electronic solutions are expected to show a high single-digit market growth potential in the coming years. We are strategically well-positioned to capitalize on this momentum through our comprehensive and diversified portfolio in electronic solutions across industries. A prime example is our semiconductor packaging business, which is forecasted for long-term exponential growth. To illustrate the breadth and the impact of our offerings, I will now highlight one representative solution from three of our four key segments: semiconductor packaging, consumer devices, and industrials. The immense rise of generative AI is reshaping the data center as well as the semiconductor landscape.
As AI becomes more compute-intense, there is a sharp rise in demand for advanced packaging, interconnects, and thermal solutions that can support high-performance systems. Our portfolio addresses these needs with cutting-edge materials for thermal dissipation, electrical protection, and high-reliability bonding, critical for next-generation GPUs, CPUs, and memory modules, especially optical transceivers. These solutions are already being deployed by globally leading semiconductor and data center players, helping them scale computing power, reduce cooling costs, and enhance system reliability. This positions us for double-digit growth through 2030, aligned with industry forecasts for AI-driven data center expansion. Looking at consumer electronics, the push towards frameless immersive displays is driving demand for innovative materials that support flexible and edge-to-edge designs. Our proprietary potting solution for flexible display protection directly addresses this trend.
It enables manufacturers to reduce bezel size, unlocking more active display areas, which is a significant gain in user experience and device aesthetics. Furthermore, it does not only improve design capabilities but also increases device protection, enables a faster and simplified manufacturing process, and even contributes to environmental responsibility by reducing the amount of conventional molded plastics and reducing CO2 emissions in manufacturing. This solution has rapidly gained traction, scaling to a double-digit million euro business within two years, outperforming market expectations and reinforcing our leadership in display material innovation. Coming to our last example within Adhesive Technologies, the evolution of camera modules. The camera module market is experiencing rapid growth across several industries. This surge is driven by the rising demand for advanced imaging, especially in consumer devices and automotive applications.
Adhesive Technologies is well-positioned to support this evolution with the most robust total solution portfolio in the market. Our offerings cover all critical aspects of camera module and sensor assembly, from lens bonding, active alignment, and underfill to lens barrel attachment. These solutions do not only enhance functionality but also significantly improve reliability. In automotive, for example, our one-step UV curve lens bonding technology enables our customers to reduce CO2 emissions and decrease manufacturing time, whereas traditional processes need two steps in manufacturing. Ultimately, this is leading to double-digit growth for consumer devices and automotive camera solutions following the market projections through 2030. Now, moving to our Consumer Brands, I would like to highlight that by the year we will have successfully concluded the merger and with that, the transformation of this business.
We fundamentally reshaped our business, streamlined our organizational setup, actively shaped our portfolio, optimized our supply chain, and enhanced operational excellence globally. All of this was achieved one year earlier than originally anticipated at the time we announced the merger. Accordingly, we are well on the way to reach the targeted net savings of at least EUR 525 million by end of this year. Overall, we significantly improved the quality of the business across multiple dimensions while at the same time investing clearly more behind our brands. We have successfully built a strong multi-category platform with enhanced efficiency and competitiveness. For example, we materially improved our rankings in FMCG relevance in terms of size in Europe. In addition, the retailer perception rating in the U.S. significantly improved, which shows that we clearly strengthened our retailer partnerships.
Overall, this demonstrates that we developed towards a stronger and more relevant player in the industry. We have thus laid the foundation for solid, sustainable, and profitable growth in the years to come. In Laundry & Home Care, we are a strong global player with leading brands. In laundry, we are ranked number two globally in our active markets. We are shaping the future of laundry by focusing on selective strategic growth opportunities in key categories and also iconic brands. We are also leveraging our technology leadership to drive differentiation and value. In Home Care, we are ranked number one globally in our active markets. We are driving market leadership by combining our investments with advanced technologies and setting new standards in dishwashing and toilet care. Two good examples of how we leverage the growth opportunities with our top brands in laundry care are Persil and Perwoll.
In Q3, Persil delivered positive growth driven by strong volume contribution. With the new Persil Giant Discs, which of course also include the trusted Persil quality in combination with its innovative triple-action deep clean formula, we address the need to meet modern laundry demands with heavy loads, tougher stains, malodor control, and brightness boost of vibrant clothes. Each disc delivers two times the cleaning power of regular detergent and enables efficient laundry care with fewer discs. In the first step, the Persil Giant Discs were introduced in selected markets in Europe, including countries such as our home market in Germany and Belgium. More countries will follow in the coming months. Beyond value-adding innovations, Persil also stands out for its pioneering brand communication. Just recently, we launched our first generative AI-powered TV commercial in Germany, reimagining Persil's iconic Lady and Wide for a new era.
This makes us a frontrunner and underlines our leading position in the laundry market. Let's take a look at the spot.
Persil. Persil's story began over a hundred years ago with a lady in white and a bold idea. A lot has changed since then, and we've had the privilege of being by your si de every step of the way. For that, we say thank you.
In fabric care, Perwoll is our number one brand and a great example for successful brand development, delivering double-digit growth in Q3 with balanced price and volume development. This performance is an excellent example of how we drive brand equity based on tech-driven innovations. We have constantly expanded our formulation portfolio with several different formulations serving specific customer needs. Just recently, we launched the first fabric care product for all light colors, including white clothes, based on our innovative triple-renew technology.
This innovation has further strengthened Perwoll's market-leading position with a presence now in over 40 countries. A key growth driver is our strategic focus on addressing geographical white spots and further expanding our global footprint, including recent country rollouts in Egypt, the U.K., and South Korea. These initiatives have delivered strong benefits, including market share gains of 190 basis points year-to-date in fabric care. Turning now to our top 10 brands, we continue to see strong growth momentum. In the third quarter, our top 10 brands delivered strong top-line growth with both positive price and volume development. Our top 10 brands have been outperforming the total business unit's organic sales growth year-to-date by around 300 basis points, driving a continuous increase in their sales share, which now accounts for around 60%. We will continue to invest in innovations and in brand equity.
In this context, tech-driven innovations are key in order to enhance the valorization of our portfolio in Consumer Brands and drive further top-line growth. We are keeping up with the appropriate investment levels behind our brands in order to fuel further growth. Now, turning to our full-year outlook, the guidance ranges remain unchanged. We continue to expect that both the adjusted EBIT margin as well as the adjusted EPS growth at constant currency will be well within our current outlook ranges. However, in case there is no noticeable improvement of the economic environment until year-end, organic sales growth for the group is expected to come in at the lower end of our current guidance range. This would, by the way, already broadly correlate with current consensus expectations.
With this, a good moment now to hand over to Marco, who will lead you through the key financials in more detail. Marco.
Yeah, thanks, Carsten, and good morning to everyone in the call, also from my side. Building on what Carsten already shared, let me provide some more color on the drivers of the group's sales performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. We achieved organic sales growth of 1.4%, which was driven by positive volume development, while pricing was stable. More on the business unit-related specifics, certainly in a minute. Acquisitions and divestments reduced sales by 2.9%, reflecting the recent divestment of our retailer brands' business in North America. FX was a headwind of minus 4.8% in the third quarter, reflecting in particular the weaker dollar and the related currencies. In nominal terms, sales amounted to EUR 5.1 billion, thus 6.3% below the prior year.
Now to the drivers in the respective regions. Starting with Asia-Pacific, where we achieved very strong organic sales growth of +4.9%. The adhesive technologies business delivered a very strong increase, which was particularly driven by the continued growth dynamics of our electronics business in China. The Consumer Brands business recorded positive growth, which was fueled by very strong growth in HAIR. India, Middle East, and Africa showed double-digit growth of 10%, and that was supported by both of our business units. In Latin America, sales were below prior year due to weaker performance in adhesive technologies. In contrast, Consumer Brands reported positive growth driven by a very strong increase in HAIR. In Europe, sales came in at -2%. Adhesive technologies were slightly below the prior year. While craftsmen, construction, and professionals achieved positive growth, mobility and electronics, as well as packaging and consumer goods, were down year-on-year.
Consumer Brands recorded a negative development, reflecting the continued challenging market environment, particularly in the Laundry & Home Care, while HAIR showed good growth. Moving on to North America, where we achieved good growth of 2.3%, a clear sequential improvement versus Q2. This was supported by both of our business units. The good development in Adhesive Technologies was driven by mobility and electronics, as well as craftsmen, construction, and professionals. The Consumer Brands business also reached good growth, which was fueled by a very strong increase in HAIR, while Laundry & Home Care came in flat. The professional business also grew very strongly, reflecting a clear improvement in the region. Turning now to Adhesive Technologies in more detail. We reached sales of EUR 2.7 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.
Organic sales growth was 2.5%, with positive pricing and good volume growth, which was supported by a partial reversal of the negative working day impact which we had faced in the first half of the year. As expected, Adhesive Technologies showed a sequential improvement, with good organic sales growth in Q3 in a still demanding environment. Pricing remained in positive territory, which again reflects the strength of our market position globally and the broad portfolio serving a broad variety of different industries. We saw the highest volume growth in Q3 when comparing this year's quarters within a still demanding market environment, albeit being supported by a partial reversal of the negative working day impact which had impacted volumes in the first half. Regarding the remainder of the year, we expect volumes to remain in positive territory while pricing is expected to remain robust.
Let me now turn to the performance in the individual business areas, where we saw different dynamics. Mobility and electronics was again the main growth driver, with a very strong increase of 5.9%. This increase was mainly driven by continued double-digit growth in electronics and very strong growth in industrials. This could more than offset the still muted performance in automotive, where we continue to see a challenging market environment. Packaging and consumer goods came in slightly below prior year. While consumer goods showed positive growth, packaging was negative due to overall lower demand. Craftsmen, construction, and professionals delivered organic sales growth of 2.2%, and that was fueled by strong growth of manufacturing and maintenance, good growth in construction, and positive development in consumer and craftsmen. Now moving to Consumer Brands. The business generated sales of EUR 2.4 billion.
Organic sales growth came in at 0.4%, driven by positive volume development, while the overall pricing effect was negative. In Q3, volume development returned to positive territory, marking a strong sequential improvement and driving positive organic sales growth. Pricing was slightly negative, particularly due to Laundry & Home Care, which also reflects the currently challenging environment with regards to consumer sentiment, while pricing in HAIR was in positive territory. Encouraging to see was the sequential acceleration of organic sales growth in North America, which was also mainly driven by HAIR. Last but not least, we will continue with our strong investments behind our brands to fuel growth. Now turning to the performance by business area. Laundry & Home Care reported organic sales growth of -1.5%, reflecting a challenging market environment. Home Care posted an overall stable development with still very strong growth in the dishwashing category.
Laundry care was negative due to fabric cleaning, while fabric care delivered double-digit growth supported by top brands such as Perwoll. What clearly stood out within Consumer Brands was the very strong growth in HAIR, which was driven by both the consumer and the professional business. The very strong growth of the consumer business was driven by coloration and styling. Our professional business also grew very strongly, supported by clear improvement in the North America region. Organic sales growth in other consumer businesses remained below the prior year due to body care in North America and Europe. As Carsten already mentioned earlier, the ranges of our sales and earnings guidance for 2025 remain unchanged.
We continue to expect that both the adjusted EBIT margin for both the group as well as the two business units, as well as the adjusted EPS growth at constant currencies, will be well within our current outlook ranges. However, in case there is no noticeable improvement of the economic environment until year-end, organic sales growth for the group as well as for both business units is expected to come in at the lower end of our current guidance ranges. This would, by the way, already broadly correlate with current consensus expectations. Our expectations regarding foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestments impact, direct material prices, restructuring expenses, and CapEx for fiscal 2025 remain unchanged. With that, back to you, Carsten.
Marco, thank you so much. I would like to conclude today's presentation by summarizing the key highlights of the quarter. First, we saw a clear acceleration in our top-line development, with both business units recording positive organic sales growth in the quarter. Adhesive Technologies continues its trajectory of consistent robust growth despite the challenging environment we are navigating. Consumer Brands reached positive volume development in Q3 and positive organic sales growth. The merger is in its final stages, and we will successfully conclude it by the end of the year, clearly ahead of plan compared to what we had originally expected when we started this journey. From a regional perspective, North America stood out with good organic sales growth supported by both business units. Second, also encouraging to see is the continued strong gross margin and bottom-line development. Third, in regards to our share buyback, we are well on track, having executed around EUR 700 million at the end of October.
Finally, when it comes to our full-year guidance, the ranges remain unchanged. With that, back to the moderator for the Q&A.
Thank you, Mr. Knobel. Ladies and gentlemen, the question- and- answer session will be conducted electronically. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind about asking a question, please press star and two on your touchscreen keypad. We will take a question in order received, and we will take as many as time permits. Please limit your question to one at a time and allow everybody to ask a question. Our first question comes from Guillaume Delmas from UBS. Please go ahead.
Carsten, good morning, Carsten, Marco, and Leslie. I've got a couple of questions both on Consumer Brands. The first one is on pricing development in the quarter because it turned suddenly negative. Maybe to start with, is it something you had been planning for some time, or was it more in reaction to a more challenging consumer, maybe competition environment? From a category and region point of view, was this negative pricing quite broad-based or just mostly down to a few specific country category combinations? Lastly on this, what would be the outlook? As in, negative pricing to stay in the coming quarters, or was this just a one-off? My second question is on your 2025 guidance specifically for Consumer Brands' organic sales growth. You flagged low end of the organic sales growth range likely, but even the low end of the range would imply a mid-single-digit performance in Q4. That would be a very significant sequential acceleration.
Just wondering what the drivers should be for this marked Q4 step-up and if what you achieved in October supports this mid-single-digit organic sales growth ambition. Thank you very much.
Good morning, Guillaume. That was more a speech than a question, but happy to take the question. We start with your pricing topic. I will take that, and Marco will then take the question related more to the guidance, also related to the top line. Let's get started on the first one. First of all, Guillaume, we had really a good Q3 in HCB with really positive volumes. That's the first time in this year, and we have seen really a sequential improvement. As also projected, we started with a - 5. We had in Q2 the- 1.
We are now at + 1, and therefore, I think we can be really happy with that development first. Second, we also expect that the Q4 will be stronger than the Q3, not only related only to volume, but also especially related to the total OSG in that context. For sure, there is the pricing which is negative in the quarter, but we should not only look at one quarter because if you look at the pricing year to date, we are with pricing year to date in positive territory, and we also expect pricing to remain positive in positive territory for the full year. We will not guide on a specific quarter between price and volume, but as I said, that is very clear. The pricing now specifically maybe to Q3, why is the pricing lower?
It is particularly more related to laundry, so not to all categories because that was also part of your question within our portfolio. Home, HAIR, be it consumer, be it professional, is in the territory of neutral to positive when it comes to pricing. In that context, it is more laundry-related, and within laundry, it is also more Europe-related. You may have noticed that, and you know that, after, I would say, a little bit better consumer sentiment in Q2, the consumer sentiment especially turned down again in Q3, and that is also related to the consumer behavior. In Europe, you know that private labels are more outspoken, and in that context, that for sure was a little bit more there. On top, the market overall in laundry was negative, not related to Henkel, but in the overall context. Yes, we also took.
Normally, which was also planned, as we said, second half will be stronger than first half. That was not only related to top line, but also related to innovations and also customer-related activities. Therefore, we have also some selected promotions which are more outspoken in the second half than in the first half. This is because you also had the question, is it planned or reactive? That is, as I said, already the plan because we talked already about that at the beginning of the year. On top, as it is also very clear, there is no change in our valorization strategy. I think that is something which is part of our strategy since the beginning. I think I have highlighted that also again today with the example of Perwoll, where we, based on the valorization, took quite significant also price increases.
We are confident that we have a good portfolio. I alluded to our top 10 brands and the percentage around 60% and the good growth, not only in an individual quarter but also year to date with a good balance of price and volume. I stop here. In that context, now I hand over to Marco because your second question was related to the overall outlook for top line for the full year, respectively for quarter four. Marco, please.
Yeah, Guillaume, good morning also from my side again. To the drivers of Q4, what we assumed here. First, you need to see that we do have easier comparables in the fourth quarter when you then compare that in particular also with Q3 and the quarters before that. Comms is one topic. As we highlighted earlier, we do see more of our innovations hitting the second half of the year, and we said that also before. That is even more geared towards the fourth quarter. Also here, assumption around our strong launch and relaunch activities is behind. We have activities going on for Vidal Sassoon and Schwarzkopf, for example, or even Persil. We talked about the Giant Discs and also around activities of Perwoll & Gliss.
Promotional activities is the next driver, of course, that we start to accelerate. We should see also more traction on that in the fourth quarter. Also some pricing we do expect in Q4, especially in emerging markets. Of course, there is still a lot of volatility around, and we talked about the consumer sentiment volatility earlier, and that is why we did also flag uncertainties around that.
Very clear.
You hope that clarifies.
You're welcome. Very clear. Thank you both.
The next question comes from Patrick Fohland from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Carsten, Marco, and Leslie. Thank you for taking my questions. Just going back to the question on promotional activity stepped up in the period. Should we expect this to be something that comes through more in Europe in Q4 and maybe in 2026? I guess sticking with kind of consumer on. We're looking at October, I'm under the impression that you had some launches that came out in the period. How have they gone, or do you have any X-ray on the performance within those launches? Just sticking within consumer. You talked about the top 10 brands picking up 60% of your portfolio, which you guys have been talking about throughout this year.
Can you maybe share some color on how you plan to improve the remaining 40%? What are the drivers there to get that improving to drive the overall portfolio forward? Thank you.
Good morning, Patrick. To the first one, as I mentioned before. We had already planned, as I said, that the second half should be more outspoken in terms of top line than the first, which was mainly related to our activities which we had planned and where we clearly stated these are more back-end loaded, means more pronounced in Q3 and Q4. That is also happening. That is also the point that we have seen also better volume development in Q3. Again, I said it is selective promotions. There is no strategy change. For sure, this is related to the innovations we are taking in Q3 and Q4.
In order to support that, we have done that. For 2026, because that was also your question, please understand that I'm not talking today about that. For sure, we have clear ideas and plans how to do that, but I would like to state a little bit on that when we are beginning of the year in terms of announcing also the guidance for the year in that part. The second part of your question was related to the top 10 brands. First of all, yes, we are investing quite significantly behind the top 10 brands, means investments in R&D, means investments in marketing. Consequence is for sure focus on innovations related to the top brands. They also continued in Q3 to deliver above-average growth.
As you mentioned rightly, the sales share has significantly increased over the last years, and we will work continuously to increasing that top 10 brand share also in the future. When it is related to the other 40%, I think part of that is also related to our portfolio strategy. I said that we have certain categories which is mainly related to our Bodycare part. Besides the top 10 brands, which is core, but it is not the investment case. It is in a clear portfolio, more a cash cow. In that context, it delivers quite significant support when it comes to gross margin, absolute gross margins in order to invest in our focus areas. Therefore, that part will always remain. For the other part, it is like we have done that now over the last couple of years. We look at our portfolio constantly.
If there is no change in performance, we will take respective measures as we have taken it, I would say, very clear and straightforward in the last couple of years. On top, you know that the laundry segment is currently facing a more pronounced competitive environment, also related to the point I made before that the market overall is negative in the context of the consumer sentiment, which is impacting consumer behavior, which is also a more trend in the direction to private label-oriented brands. From my point of view, as I always pointed that out, that is a temporary development. If sentiment comes back, I would significantly see then also a shift again towards the branded labeled businesses. Hope that helps, Patrick. David. No, Patrick. Sorry.
Just following up on that, just on private label. Can you maybe share where you're seeing the pressure in private label? Is it mainly Europe. Or any countries specifically you want to call out?
No, as indicated. Before, it is predominantly in Europe. The private label share in Europe is around 20%, and that's something which you do not see in any other region. In the part when it comes to laundry, that is pure laundry.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from David Hayes from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, thank you. Good morning, all. My question is on the margin, both short-term and long-term. Just on the short-term, you look at the consumer challenges that you talked about. At the beginning of the year, you were thinking consumer could do up to 3% organic. Now you are targeting a half a percent, but you are still well within, as you said in the release, well within the ranges on margin and earnings.
Just trying to understand what is offsetting that. That challenge, particularly on pricing, how is the margin still well within the ranges that you started with at the beginning of the year? I guess secondly, on the longer-term margin. Are you still confident with these pricing pressures that the trajectory has not changed to get to 16%+ , as you have talked about previously, or if these challenges continue, is that something that you would have to kind of capitulate on and take longer to get there? Thank you.
Yeah. Good morning, David. Related to the short-term, I think what we clearly said today is that we are confident in both businesses for the margin situation, that we will be well within the ranges we have been setting up. The main reasons behind that are predominantly in the consumer space. It is the net savings we are taking.
Out of the merger situation where I clearly pointed out we will at least reach the EUR 525 million until the end of the year, a year earlier than expected. That does not mean that in 2026 there will be nothing more coming. I'm only saying we reached it significantly earlier. We have efficiency gains in both divisions when it comes to the production setup, the supply chain setup, which we are predominantly driving in, again, also in the second phase of the merger, but also relevant for our adhesives business. The valorization part is also very clear. I mentioned it before. Valorization brings us significantly higher gross margins. The good thing behind is that we can invest significantly more behind our brands. By that, also looking now to your long-term question, bringing our long-term, I would say, investment in terms of brands into the right direction.
Last but not least, it's the mix effect, which is also, again, valid for both businesses. In the context of consumer, it's more related to the really fantastic development in HAIR , in consumer and in professional, and in adhesives. For sure, I was relating to the electronics part not only for today, but also the prospects into the direction of 2030. All of that is not only related to short-term, but also to long-term, or better to say mid-term, that we will reach the margin of around 16%, which we, I would say—not I would say, which we concluded in 2024, that we will reach that to a mid-term means two to four years, average is three years. We are on the right track. If you looked over the last couple of years, our margin development is continuously improving that. Hope that helps, David.
That's great. Thank you, Carsten.
You're welcome.
The next question comes from Christian Faitz from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks. Good morning, Carsten, Marco, and Leslie and team. A couple of questions, please, from my side. In adhesives, would you see any remarkable sales or order trends at this point in time in Q4 that your salespeople are suggesting that are different from Q3, i.e., pickup in automotive demand or something like that? And then on the consumer side, I mean, I understand the negative trend in laundry, consumers trading down to private labels, particularly in Europe, but certainly congrats on the strong result in HAIR within consumer. Why are consumers not trading down also on HAIR, or is that really your innovative portfolio versus a lower base that's driving that?
Christian, thank you. First of all, good morning. And thank you for these two questions. I take the second one, which is related to your consumer part, and I let Marco talk about the adhesives part in terms of when you said the sales and the order trends. In Q4, if they are different to Q3. When it comes to consumer, I cannot, sometimes it is difficult to talk about history, but the laundry segment, at least since I am in business, and that is now since 30 years, that was always the situation that in that context, private label was, yeah, especially in difficult times, quite strong or existing. Why is it not in HAIR? Difficult to predict. The main reason, I would say, is for sure the situation that, especially if you think about coloring your HAIR and also styling your HAIR, you are visible from the outside.
I think that's something where people have a lot of loyalty and also want to have a lot of security and certainty that what you would like to see yourself on your body is, or in that context, on your head, on your hair, is something where you have security that you get the result you want. On top, coloration is not an easy thing from a technology perspective, and therefore also quite high entry barriers to get into that business. That has also been the case that you do not see private labels even not being able to get into that technique or technology. That is, for me, the major reason why you do not see that in these categories.
Therefore, we are more than happy and also lucky that we are in the hair business, that we are one of the, I would say, most outspoken worldwide players in that context, being the clear, now, in the meantime, the clear number two in the professional business of hair after a company which is located in Paris or in France. I think we will continue to drive that trend and also very happy with the current results with overproportional growth. I would say I stop here and hand over to Marco for the adhesive question. Marco?
Yeah. Christian, to your first question on adhesives and sales trend, I mean, it's clear we said it's a very volatile environment. That is why sometimes I say what is a trend is not easy to say. When you look at the group, what has remained very strong over the whole year is, of course, the electronics part, and that has developed very nicely. The more difficult environment, for sure, we face in the automotive sector. From that perspective, the trend is not what we see very much different at the beginning of Q3, but also we just are in the beginning of Q3, quite obviously. When you look at those trends, also now looking more, and of course, longer into the future, you see also that general trend has not much changed yet. Still, the volatility and uncertainty is seen also in the industrial markets. When you look also at the IPX forecast for 2026, for example, at the moment, IPX is expected to come in at around 1.7%.
If that is so, that would be even below the level of 2025. We also know that the IPX also is very volatile in the expectation, but that shows also at the moment it is very difficult to identify a clear trend. Even for 2026, it is supposed to be a muted industrial environment for the time being. The same is in particular true for the sub-index of the light vehicle production index for 2026. On the other hand, I see no indication that electronics and also our industrial business environment should not continue to grow. These trends even seem to persist into 2026. We are overall, of course, confident on our performance of the teams and see also the resilience of our businesses. In so far, of course, we are going to make up our mind beginning of next year.
How that will evolve together with also the latest news on consumer sentiment that, of course, we will then look at and come out, like always, with the guidance for next year in March.
Thanks very much, both Marco and Carsten.
You're welcome, Christian.
The next question comes from Tom Sykes from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning, everybody. Thank you. Just two quick ones. One on the adhesives business. How big now is the services side of the business, or if you like, the total that's kind of non-strictly volume-related? And what's the growth of that been, please? And then just, is it possible to expand a little on your productivity comments in consumer? Because obviously, you have had this outsized productivity gain.
Do you think the setup now is something which you can produce year in, year out, slightly higher productivity than you did do prior to the merger? Or is it a period where you do get some productivity gains, but they may be a little lower because you brought some of those forward? Please.
Good morning, Tom. To your first question, adhesives, I assume when you talk about services, you mean or you relate that to the point where we have now significantly invested in the last one and a half years in the so-called MRO business, maintenance, repair, overall business. If you look at that, it is around 20% of the business overall. What is, for me, very promising, we bought these two companies, Critica Infrastructure and Seal For Life. I think on two reasons. First of all, to create a new category for us.
We had a certain business on that, but we wanted to make it significantly bigger. This we reached with that. That is one. The even more important question is we are here for our purposeful growth agenda, which means we want to overproportionately grow. I think that is happening. Both acquisitions, if we take them together, year to date, are growing double-digit. I think that is in the context of where we are in. You just heard Marco describing the industry sentiment with an IPX of around 2% in this year and also not a significantly different situation for next year with currently a forecast of 1.7%. I think it is very good to have these outstanding categories like MRO, but also like electronics in that context. That is for your first question. The second one was related to productivity gains, especially in the consumer business. Here, the point is.
We did quite a lot. In the last couple of years, you know that we split our EUR 525 million in two phases, EUR 275 million related to phase 1 and around EUR 250 million in phase 2. I mentioned it before, we are not only well underway, we are really, really over-delivering on that. We expect for sure also further gains, but of course, for sure in a lower dimension as in the last couple of years. I mentioned before, even for 2026, we will significantly be higher than the EUR 525 million I mentioned before. Therefore, we are really on a good track record when it comes to creating additional savings on that. We have around 40% SKU reduction. We have more than 20% of complexity reduction, taking SKUs out, streamlining the processes. We will also, in the next couple of years, benefit from that part.
As I mentioned before, you cannot expect the same pace. In the context of what we did since 2023. I hope that helps.
Yeah. No, that's very helpful. Thanks, Carsten.
Thank you, Tom.
The next question comes from Michael Omara from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. First, could you please maybe provide some color on the strong hair delivery and quantify retail and salon growth? Was there anything of one-off nature helping during the quarter? Was there maybe some moves of inventories at retailers or distributors which helped that strong number? And the second question would be on raw materials. As we look into 2026, are there any noteworthy moves on your key inputs that we need to be aware of? Thank you.
Yes. Good morning, Michael. I take the first question related to hair, and Marco takes the second on the raw materials. I mentioned it before when I talked in the context of Tom's question. The hair business is really a fantastic business we have at hand. For sure, we don't know that only since today, but really, that was also in our portfolio discussions, one of our key focus areas, and by that, trying to get our global category lead in hair further improved. You're specifically asking for the current performance. The hair business showed a significant sequential acceleration versus Q2, reaching a very strong growth in the quarter, above 4%. The consumer business posted a very strong growth in Q3 with the strongest contribution from color and styling as the two categories.
Styling was very strong in Q3, especially driven by Europe and a double-digit growth in North America and hair colorants. Same with significant growth in Europe and double-digit growth in EMEA. That is the one. The professional business, also a very strong quarter in Q3, where almost all regions were contributing positively. We saw a very strong growth in North America and a double-digit in Latin. I have to tell you, out of my personal travels, I recently visited our U.S. professional business in Los Angeles, where the headquarter is, and which stands for a significant part of our professional business worldwide. I can only tell you, we're working here with a couple of brands, but it's really a great brand setup, a great setup overall. I'm really very confident.
That's also what I would like to get across, that this business is not only good today, but has also a very bright future going forward. As you know, we have overproportionally gross margins on that business, which is also very helpful in our portfolio transformation or in our valorization strategy. I am very positive about that with a very strong performance also today or year to date. Hope that helps, Michael. I now hand over for your second question when it comes to raw materials.
Yeah, to raw materials. It is sure the volatility in the market is strong, so some caveat to, of course, what we do see for next year. Broadly, what trends we see is for 2026, somewhat similar to this year. We see on the petrochemical feedstock side that that shall remain rather flat, so no significant increase, no significant decrease.
While, on the other hand, natural feedstocks, for example, palm kernel oil, we expect a rather upward trend also to continue into 2026. Then on the precious metal side, where we have seen quite some upward trends and that may continue, that is what is suggested by the expert opinions for the time being. I also need to point out that on the precious metal side, that is rather a pass-through on our end, so it will not impact really our margin. That is what we currently see for the market.
Very clear. Thank you.
Michael, thank you for your questions. With that, let me thank you for your questions. Let me also close today's calls with reminding you of the upcoming financial reporting dates. We are looking forward to connecting with you again in March, to be precise, 11th of March, when we will publish our annual report. With this, we would like to thank you in the name of Leslie and also Marco to thank you for joining our call today. Have a good day. Take care. Goodbye.
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