Personal Care Down 2% at Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark Corporation reported that net sales in the second quarter of 2009 decreased 5.6% to $4.7 billion, according to the company. Operating profit dipped 6% to $609 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Falk said, “Business conditions remained challenging in the second quarter, as the economic environment and weak foreign currency rates continued to impact our results. However, the underlying strength of our business performance was encouraging, as we were able to mostly offset the significant drag from currency effects, higher pension expense and the charges for our organization optimization initiative.”

Sales of personal care products declined 2%, compared with the second quarter of 2008. In North America, personal care sales dropped 4%, according to the report.However, sales volumes for Huggies baby wipes were up at a double-digit rate for the second quarter in the region.

In Europe, personal care sales declined approximately 14% in the quarter. In developing and emerging markets, personal care sales increased 1%, as growth in organic sales was broad-based, with particular strength in China, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil and the Andean region in Latin America.

As announced in June, the company plans to reduce its worldwide salaried workforce by approximately 1,600 positions by the end of the year.