Helen of Troy, the company behind cosmetics brands such as Revlon, Sure and Bedhead in the US, has reported a decline in beauty net sales of 19.5%.
Beauty net sales revenue totalled $107.7m in Q3 2017, down from the $133.8m generated in the same period for fiscal 2016.
The fall in sales was in line with expectations including anticipated drops of 5.3% and 2% in the company’s Venezuelan and North American personal care businesses respectively.
Beauty’s sales performance continues to be impacted by our efforts to rationalise lower margin and non-strategic business.
With Helen of Troy’s foot care category becoming commoditised, the impact was another 2% decline as expected.
Remaining decline was down to softer than expected retail environment, the company noted, with overall decline in point of sale activity for the broader retail beauty appliances category.
Helen of Troy also operates across houseware, health and home, and nutritional supplements.
Overall, consolidated net sales fell 0.2%, with health and home sales falling below expectations due to a below average start to the cough, cold and flu season.
Net sales revenue dropped to $444.4m compared with $445.5m in Q3 2016.
Julien Mininberg, CEO, focused on the positives and confirmed that the company’s beauty sales performance was a sequential improvement from the second quarter, despite the decline year-on-year.
He said: “Beauty’s sales performance continues to be impacted by our efforts to rationalize lower margin and non-strategic business, Venezuela re-measurement, unexpected retail holiday inventory reductions and even further deterioration in foreign currency, which have overshadowed the success of new innovations.”
