Gillette Reports Gain in Second

The Gillette Company’s second quarter sales rose 5% to $2.02 billion, while net income increased 27% to $293 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2002, net sales grew 6% to $3.76 billion, while net income increased 25% to $516 million.

Colgate-Palmolive Company

Colgate-Palmolive announced a record net income for the second quarter 2002. The net income increased 14% to $327 million, which reflects the company’s adoption of SFAS 142, eliminating the amortization of good will. Wordwide unit volume increased 4%, as every operating division continued to grow. By region, unit volume increased 2.5% in North America, 4.5% in Europe, 3.5% in Latin America and 4.5% in Asia/Africa.

The Dial Corporation

Dial Corporation reported that for the second quarter ended June 29, 2002, net income before special gains was $31.2 million. Net sales increased 5.6% to $333.3 million and sales of the company’s four core domestic businesses rose 8.9%. For the 6 months ended June 30, 2002, net income from continuing operations rose to $57 million. This was attributed to higher domestic sales, gross margin improvement and better results in Argentina. Additionally, net sales for the 6 months increased 5.3% to $640.7 million.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson announced a record increase of 10.9%, bringing sales for the second quarter up to $9.1 billion. Domestic sales increased 10.7%, while international sales increased 11.3%. This sales growth reflects the strong performance of such medical products as Procrit/Eprex, Duragesic, Remicade, Topamax and Aciphex/Pariet. In addition, worldwide sales for the Medical Devices and Diagnostics segment increased 13.7% to $3.2 billion in the second quarter.

Helen of Troy Limited

Helen of Troy Ltd. announced record sales for the first quarter ended May 31, 2002. Sales in the first quarter increased 12% to $102,483,000, while net income increased 44% to $6,591,000. Leading the sales were increases in the retail hair care products category, the professional division, the international division and Tactica International. For the fiscal year ending February 28, 2003, the company expects overall sales growth to be in the 10-15% range.