INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Henkel exec sees North America sales up

* Henkel's N. America consumer goods sales seen rising

* Exec says the worst is behind it

NEW YORK, May 6 - Henkel Consumer Goods Inc expects North American sales to rise in all of its categories, its chief executive said on Wednesday, as shoppers seek out low-cost household goods and try to keep germs at bay.

The $2 billion North American consumer products business of Germany's Henkel AG, whose products include Dial soaps, Purex laundry detergent and Soft Scrub bathroom cleaner, saw sales rebound "with a vengeance" in March, according to CEO Brad Casper, after trending downward in January and February.

"We start(ed) seeing people shopping again, returning to some of that normalcy," Casper said, coinciding with an uptick in consumer confidence and a rise in the U.S. stock market.

"March was great, April was strong, May is coming in solid," Casper added. "I don't want to say that the 'recession' is over, but I would say that within our class of categories, the worst is behind us."

Casper said retailers are ordering again, after months of holding back in an effort to reduce their inventories and the risk of getting stuck with unsold merchandise.

Henkel's North American consumer products business remains a bright spot, Casper said. Its sales of liquid hand soap soared between 40 percent and 100 percent in recent weeks as the H1N1 flu outbreak led consumers to stock up on germ-killing products.

Germany-based Henkel reported disappointing first-quarter results earlier on Wednesday. Profit in its key adhesive technologies unit tumbled as demand from the automotive, metal and electronics industries dipped sharply. ID:nL6575876