Nu Skin’s Fourth Quarter Revenues Up 12%

Provo, UT-based Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. reported revenue was up 12% and earnings were up 3% during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2001, on a constant currency basis. The company reported revenue of $232.6 million compared to $223.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2000, an increase of 4%. Net income of $13.6 million, was down from $16.2 million in last year’s fourth quarter.

For the full year, revenue was up 9% to $885.6 million, compared to $879.8 million in 2000. Net income was down to $50.3 million from $61.7 million in 2000. A decline in earnings per share for the quarter and the year is due primarily to the weakening of the Japanese yen, executives said. For the year, Nu Skin executives will assume the yen will average 130 yen to the U.S. dollar. If currencies continue to weaken against the U.S. dollar, Nu Skin’s reported results will be negatively impacted, according to the company statement.

“We are pleased with improving distributor trends and local currency revenue growth for the year, which increased in the latter half of the year,” said Steven J. Lund, president and chief executive officer. “Fourth quarter results were bolstered by local currency revenue growth in Japan and the opening of Malaysia in early November.”

The company’s distributor leadership count grew 16% over last year to 24,839 executive distributors and the number of active distributors increased 12% to 558,000. The company said both were record levels.

For the year, North America revenue was level with last year’s results, while several other regions reported increases. Nu Skin conducts business in more than 30 countries.

“Record active distributor and executive counts, solid momentum in Asia and Europe and compelling product pipelines present good opportunities for growth in 2002,” Mr. Lund noted. “Our commitment to focus promotion on higher margin product lines and to continue to contain SG&A expenses also gives us confidence that we will continue to generate significant cash flow going forward. We expect our core operations to generate high single-digit revenue and earnings growth in 2002.”

Nu Skin will be a sponsor of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games begin in Salt Lake City, UT. “We believe our Olympic sponsorship positively impacts our business. However, we anticipate first quarter earnings to be tempered by company expenses surrounding our sponsorship of the Olympic Games,” said Mr. Lund.