WD-40 Posts Gains for Q4, Fiscal Year

WD-40 Company posted net sales for the quarter ended Aug. 31, 2013 rose 10% to $93.5 million. Year-to-date net sales increased 8% to $368.5 million. Net income for the fourth quarter fell 9% to $8.1 million. Year-to-date net income rose 125 to $39.8 million.

Fourth quarter multi-purpose maintenance products sales, which include the WD-40, 3-in-One, and Blue Works brands were up 16% to $81.6 million from the prior year fiscal quarter, and $320.9 million year-to-date, up 12% from the prior fiscal year. The multi-purpose maintenance products are considered a primary focus for the company.  Home care and cleaning products sales, which include all other brands, fell 16% to $11.9 million for the quarter and slipped 15% to $47.6 million year-to-date. The US homecare and cleaning products are considered harvest brands providing healthy profit returns to the company and are becoming a smaller part of the business as the multi-purpose maintenance products sales grow. 

Americas segment sales in the fourth quarter rose 1% to $47.3 million for the fourth quarter and was up 2% to $180.5 million year-to-date. The Europe, Middle East and Africa segment sales in the fourth quarter jumped 25% to $35.9 million and increased 16% to $136.0 million year-to-date. Asia-Pacific segment sales in the fourth quarter were up 10% to $10.3 million and rose 7% to $52.0 million for the year.

“We have been celebrating our 60th anniversary and are pleased to report a record year for the company during this important milestone,” said Garry Ridge, WD-40 Company president and chief executive officer. “Our tribes continued focus on our key strategic initiatives and thinking big about our future has paid off in spades with great results across all trading blocs. We continue to see ourselves as a growth company, and our performance supports that.”

The WD-40 Specialist product line was launched in fiscal year 2012 and additional products were added to the product line during fiscal year 2013.  Distribution of the WD-40 Specialist product line was also expanded into 22 additional countries during fiscal year 2013.
“During the year we saw growth of the WD-40 Multi-Use Product in all of our trading blocs and have been able to leverage our platform category approach with WD-40 Specialist to bring the power of the shield to more places on more products,” Ridge said. “We have also been able to further enhance some of the infrastructure work our tribe has done as we grow distribution of WD-40 Specialist across the globe. We continue to maintain the homecare and cleaning products as harvest brands that continue to generate profits while we work to develop strategic alternatives for their future.” 

WD-40 Company expects fiscal year 2014 net sales of $383.3 million to $398.0 million and net income of $40.5 million to $42.8 million