Church & Dwight Q1 Sales Rise 3.9%

Church & Dwight's first quarter 2015 reported net sales increased 3.9% to $812.3 million. Organic sales growth for first quarter 2015 was 3.6%, driven by volume growth of 3.2%, and 0.4% favorable product mix and pricing, the company said.

“We are extremely pleased with the sales and earnings growth. The strong momentum we ended 2014 with has continued in early 2015,” said James Craigie, chairman and CEO. “This year, we launched innovative new products in many of our major categories as we believe that innovation is the key to increasing our market share and reviving category growth in this challenging economy. The results to date are promising, as three out of four megabrands achieved share growth in the first quarter.”

Consumer domestic net sales were $614.6 million, a 3.6% increase over the prior year first quarter sales. First quarter organic sales increased by 1.6%, primarily due to continued success of the Arm & Hammer Clump & Seal cat litter franchise, and higher sales of Arm & Hammer liquid laundry detergent and Vitafusion vitamins, partially offset by lower sales of Xtra laundry detergent, Trojan condoms and Oxiclean laundry detergent. Volume growth contributed approximately 1.2% to organic sales, while favorable product mix and pricing contributed 0.4%.

Consumer international net sales were $120.4 million, a 2.8% decrease compared to the prior year first quarter sales. Organic sales increased 9.5%, driven by higher sales in France, the UK and Mexico. Volume increased 10.5%, partially offset by a 1.0% unfavorable product mix and pricing.

Church & Dwight’s specialty products net sales were $77.3 million, a 19.2% increase from the prior year first quarter sales. First quarter organic sales increased by 10.8%.
 
According to Craigie, “2015 is expected to be an exciting year for Church & Dwight” as the firm has launched a number of innovative
new products across its “megabrands”

He added, “Innovation has been a key driver of our past success as shown by the fact that over 1/3 of our net sales in 2014 came from new products launched since 2007.”

Church & Dwight is investing its vitamin business, including completing construction of a new gummy vitamin manufacturing facility in York, PA. “This significant $60MM investment is expected to expand our production capacity by 75%,” said Craigie.

With regard to 2015, Craigie expects organic sales growth of approximately 3%.