Energizer Sees Challenges Within Personal Care

“Earnings for the quarter slightly exceeded our expectations,” said Ward Klein, chief executive officer.”Despite top-line challenges in our Personal Care division due to heightened competitive promotional activity, our Hydro franchise continues to grow and to show strong repeat purchases.Furthermore, we have several innovative products that are launching this quarter that we anticipate will positively impact the top-line growth in fiscal 2013.In addition, our restructuring plans remain on track to achieve $25 to $35 million in savings for fiscal 2013.

“In personal care, Wet Shave net sales decreased 3.9% on a reported basis, and 3.3% operationally in the quarter.Sales of Schick Hydro men’s systems continued to grow, up 26% in the quarter, on higher refill volume, higher Schick Hydro Power razor sales and lower promotional spending.Additionally, incremental Schick Hydro Silk sales offset the sales decline in legacy women’s systems in the quarter.These increases were more than offset by sales declines in disposables, men’s legacy systems and shave preps due, in part, to heavy competitive promotional activity.

“Within Personal Care, our sales expectation remains consistent with our initial financial outlook in November, which was mid-single digit sales growth driven by innovation across our categories, especially in Wet Shave and Skin Care.As expected, this innovation pipeline did not have a material impact in the first fiscal quarter.For Household Products we continue to expect a low-single digit sales decline for the remainder of the fiscal year, driven by continuing category volume declines and some additional impact, most notably in the second fiscal quarter, from the previously discussed shelf space and display losses in the US nearly one year ago,” added Klein.