Helen of Troy Limited reports sales decline for Q1 ended May 31

12 Jul '05

4 min read

Personal care products marketer Helen of Troy Limited reported sales and earnings for the first quarter ended May 31, 2005.

First quarter sales increased 19 percent to $127,392,000 versus sales of $107,021,000 in the same period of the prior year.

First quarter net earnings were $10,547,000 or $0.33 per diluted share, compared with $14,483,000 or $0.44 per diluted share for the same period a year earlier, a decline of 27 percent.

Gross profit for the first quarter was 46.1 percent of sales compared with 46.9 percent of sales for the prior year first quarter.

Increases in selling, general and administrative expenses during the quarter were the primary reasons for the net earnings decline for the first quarter.

The SG&A expense increases include additional personnel, warehousing, freight, depreciation, advertising expenses for new product launches for the Brut and Sea Breeze skin care products, and costs associated with modifications, operations, and improvements of our worldwide information systems.

Gerald J. Rubin, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, commenting on the Company's first quarter results, stated "In our earnings conference call of May 12, 2005, we discussed our expectation that sales in our personal care lines of business would be flat during the first half of fiscal 2006, with an improvement expected in the second half of the year.

Excluding the sales of the newly acquired OXO International business, personal care sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 ended May 31, 2005 decreased approximately 6 percent.

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