Germany's Hankel reported on Wednesday an increase of both sales and profits in the first quarter of the year on a year-on-year basis.

"We have made a successful start to the new fiscal year. We are particularly pleased with our strong organic sales growth, to which all our business sectors have contributed," said Ulrich Lehner, chairman of the Management Board of Henkel KGaA.

"The launch of numerous innovative products supported by targeted advertising measures has been successful. In regional terms, the growth drivers were once again Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific," he said.

In the first quarter of 2006, Henkel reported sales of 3.048 billion euros (about 3.718 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 11.4 percent.

The operating profits reached 295 million euros, increasing 11.7 percent above the previous year.

Source: Xinhua