Helen of Troy Boosted by Steam, Supplements

For the three-month period ended May 31, 2015, Helen of Troy Limited’s net sales revenue rose 10.8% to $345.3 million, which includes a 2.1% decrease in core business net sales revenue (excluding Nutritional Supplements and VapoSteam). The decrease in core business net sales revenue includes a negative impact of 2.5% from foreign currency fluctuations, the firm said.

Healthcare/Home Environment rose 0.4%, driven by new product introductions, a relatively strong end to the cold/flu season and the VapoSteam acquisition, primarily offset by a negative impact of $5.2 million, or 3.6% from foreign currency fluctuations.
Beauty declined 4.7%, which included a negative impact of $2.2 million, or 2.1% from foreign currency fluctuations. The West Coast port disruption also negatively impacted net sales revenue.

Healthy Directions, which comprises the Nutritional Supplements segment, contributed $39.4 million to net sales revenue.

“We had a solid first quarter positioning us well to achieve our annual goals,” said Julien R. Mininberg, CEO. “ The quarter was highlighted by a double digit increase in revenue and growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share, in line with our expectations, despite a greater-than-expected impact from foreign currency and the West Coast port disruption. Leading our quarterly performance was our Healthcare/Home Environment segment driven by new product introductions, a relatively strong end to the flu season and the VapoSteam acquisition notwithstanding a significant foreign currency headwind. The Healthy Directions acquisition contributed almost $40 million to sales revenue.”

Helen of Troy has reorganized and renamed its personal care segment as “Beauty.”

“While Beauty sales were down year-over-year, we made continued progress toward stability. We remain highly focused on executing our multi-year growth strategy and believe we are on track to achieve the objectives we have set for ourselves for the current fiscal year,” said Mininberg.

On March 31, Helen of Troy announced that it had acquired the Vicks VapoSteam US liquid inhalant business from Procter & Gamble, including a fully paid-up license to the Vicks VapoSteam trademarks. In a related transaction, it also acquired a fully paid-up license of P&G’s Vicks VapoPad trademarks for scent pads in the United States. The vast majority of Vicks VapoSteam and VapoPads are used in Vicks humidifiers, vaporizers and other health care devices already marketed by Helen of Troy.