Sales increased by 4.7% year on year, with all businesses growing. In a difficult geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, Saint-Gobain continues to outperform the market, thanks to targeted strategic positioning centered on energy and decarbonization challenges, as well as local advantages in each country's business. Saint-Gobain continues to provide efficient service and support to customers
in an environment of continued inflation, while managing changes in energy and raw material costs.
In the first quarter, prices increased by 10.7% due to the price increases implemented last year and some additional measures taken in various regions in early 2023, resulting in a positive price cost spread overall. With the expected moderate slowdown in the market, the sales volume decreased by 5.5%, which also reflects the sharp contrast between the significant decline in the new construction market and the better resilience of the renovation market as a whole. Saint-Gobain is actively taking the necessary commercial and industrial measures to adapt to the current environment and continue to perform well in order to achieve impressive operating margins in a difficult market. Sales rose 3.3% to 12.4 billion euros, including a 0.5% negative currency impact,
according to the results. The impact of the corporate restructuring resulted in a 0.9% decrease in sales as a result of the ongoing optimisation of its operations, including the divested businesses (mainly the distribution business in the UK, Poland and Denmark, the glass processing business, Crystals and Detectors business serving the steel industry and Ceramics business) and acquired businesses (mainly Kishpro and Impac in Mexico for construction chemicals, Kaycan's Exterior Wall Products business in North America and Rockwool's Thermal Insulation business in India). Demonstrated resilience
in a difficult environment In an environment where the
new construction market has declined significantly and the overall resilience of the retrofit market is good, the first quarter results demonstrated Saint-Gobain's resilience to stress, thanks in particular to "Grow & amp;" A series of initiatives launched in the "Impact" strategic plan.
-At the strategic level, the company has benefited from business optimization (one third of sales have been rotated since 2018), which has strengthened the profitable growth of the business, as well as from the strong positioning of the retrofit market (new energy efficiency regulations and subsidies), which provides structural support.
-At the operational level, Saint-Gobain makes full use of efficient local teams that are closer to customers, prioritizing the development of low-carbon solutions and processes, as well as the results-oriented allocation of responsibilities among national teams. These have helped us achieve greater pricing power (always keeping an eye on the price-cost spread) and have helped us take aggressive steps to adapt to the local environment when necessary.
APAC: Good sales momentum
contrasts with high growth in the previous year, with APAC generating organic growth of 5% in the first quarter of 2023.
India delivered a strong performance, benefiting from increased market share and integrated innovative solutions, also following the recent acquisition of glass wool insulation leader U. P. Twiga. Saint-Gobain continues to play a pioneering role in the promotion of green building with its sustainable building solutions. Despite the health emergency in China at the beginning of the first quarter, it still achieved a positive growth trend. Southeast Asia continues to witness good performance growth as it offers a variety of integrated solutions focused on high value added.