In the first four months of 2022, the Hilti Group achieved a sales increase of 5.6% to 2.03 billion francs. In local currencies, growth reached 9% compared to the same period last year.

The appreciation of the Swiss franc accelerated again and led to a negative currency effect on sales of 3.4 percentage points from January to April. In the Europe business region, the Hilti Group increased sales in local currencies by 8.8 percent, with particularly positive development in Northern and Southern Europe.

In the Americas, growth was 10.9%, continuously supported by disproportionate growth in Latin America. Influenced by Covid-19 restrictions in Asian countries, Asia/Pacific achieved only slight growth (+1.1%). The Eastern Europe/Middle East/Africa region reported double-digit sales growth (+15.4%) as the effects of the war in Ukraine and associated sanctions against Russia will not be visible in the results commercial only in the months to come.

The difficult market environment and the announced increase in interest rates increase the likelihood of an economic slowdown in the construction sector. Nonetheless, the Hilti Group continues to expect double-digit sales growth in local currencies for the full year, driven primarily by price increases.

Christoph Loos, CEO of Hilti, said: “Global supply bottlenecks, combined with massive increases in raw material, energy and transport prices, have been further exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and the current shutdowns in China. In this context, our continued growth is encouraging. However, the first four months have shown that 2022 will be much more difficult than last year.