Net gains for Elizabeth Arden 13-Aug-2010

Elizabeth Arden has reported net sales of $228.2m for its fourth quarter ended 30 June, an increase of 7.4% on this quarter in the previous fiscal year. That puts net sales for the full year at $1.1bn, an increase of 3.1%. Excluding the favourable impact of currency translation, net sales increased 1.6%. Net income per diluted share was $0.68 compared with a net loss of $0.22 per diluted share for the previous year.

The company’s chairman, president and ceo, E Scott Beattie commented: Just over two years ago, we embarked on a global re-engineering of our major business processes and the implementation of a new enterprise software system to improve the efficiencies and scalability of our business. The progress we have made with these initiatives is evident in our results as we exceeded our targets for out key metrics the year. Specifically for fiscal 2010, adjusted gross margin increased by 260 basis points, adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 100 basis points, EPS (adjusted) grew by 85% and operating cash flow tripled to $114m, while we increased net working capital by 7%.”

Fiscal guidance for 2011 has been adjusted and net sales are now expected to increase 3-4%, with earnings per diluted share expected to be around $1.15 to $1.25. Net sales guidance for 2011 assumes an unfavourable impact from foreign currency rates of about 0.5%.