France: Sales across the whole of the Saint-Gobain group in the first quarter of 2011 came to Euro9.799bn, an increase of 12.2% year-on-year. Organic growth of 8.8% was seen in France across all operations and in western Europe (excluding France) the figure was 10.2%. The figures for North America and emerging markets (Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America) were 4.2% and 15.6% respectively.
In the Construction Products division, which includes gypusm wallboard and insulation, sales were up by 6.4% to Euro2.658bn. Saint-Gobain attributed the increases to improved trading conditions across the whole of Europe and continuing strong momentum in Asian markets. The results were tempered by poor trading conditions in the US.
The group's sub-section Interior Solutions grew by 8.4% year-on-year, primarily due to an upturn in western Europe and more favourable winter weather conditions than 2010 that allowed more construction work to take place.
Saint-Gobain's targets for the remainder of 2011 are to have double-digit operating growth across all operations and achieve Euro1.3bn free cash flow after spending Euro500m on capital expenditure.
