Jerome A. Peribere
Analyst
Thanks, George, very good question. first, we all know that with the size of our business outside of the U.S., in Diversey Care, this is the division which is the most hurt by currency. We had a 9% negative translation in the first quarter at the sales level, which is $45 million, and obviously, this has been hurt most. So the highlights of Diversey Care for the quarter are that we're sustaining now and accelerating our growth in the U.S. You have seen a 4% sales growth, which is really good, and we're continuing to make inroads in that important and large market. Our hospitality market globally has been very strong with double-digit growth, and our health care market in North America has been very, very strong. The -- where we have right now short-term difficulties is probably in Russia and in some parts of the Middle East because the Russians were traveling a lot and were spending a lot in hospitality. And given the local political and economic situation, you have a little bit of reduction of that, which is affecting Dubai, for example, and affecting also tourism within Russia. And this is short-term because we believe it is going to be turning around. With regards to China, the first quarter, we had middle-digit growth -- middle-single-digit growth in Diversey Care in China, and this is a little bit of a disappointment because we're used to double-digit growth. But this is mostly coming from the fact that we have -- that the new hotel opening, because of the real estate crisis in China, has been much slower than in the past. We are growing nicely in restaurants and quick service with local chains. Some international chains have been hurt in the recent past, but we also expect that this is going to get much better. Brazil is a region where the whole company and the result of the whole economy has been hurt, including Diversey Care. And again, you know the economic environment there and the very strong devaluations. All of those things, nevertheless, make me very positive. We had 6% EBITDA growth in constant currency in Diversey Care. We have lots of innovation. The Intellibot, which is a startup, is not going to impact sales, but it is going to have a midterm tremendous benefit on our business, and we are growing where we really want to grow. Hospitality, health care and so on are very important segments for us.