PZ Cussons trading in line as Asia shines

9th Dec 2010 07:34

Soap group PZ Cussons says trading in the first half of its financial year has been in line with expectations with strong momentum in Asia helping to offset weakness in Europe. Conditions in the UK are 'very competitive with high levels of promotional activity continuing', the owner of the Imperial Leather and Original Source brands says, while the economic turmoil in Greece has created 'challenging' trading conditions. The performance in Poland has been good albeit with lower export sales, the company said. Performance in Australia, Indonesia and the Middle East has been strong, but things are tougher in Africa, where PZ Cussons also operates a consumer electrical business. In Nigeria, tight liquidity provision resulted in a broadly flat performance and uncertainty over the timing of the presidential elections continues, which could affect trading.'We remain cautious about the trading environment for the remainder of the year, given continued high levels of promotional activity, particularly in the UK; a challenging outlook for the consumer in a number of markets; global increases in a number of commodity costs; and potential disruption to trading from the Nigerian election process,' the company says.