Elizabeth Arden's second quarter sales fell 5.2% to $316.2 million. For the six months, Arden's sales fell 3.6% to $582.2 million. Despite the decline, company executives insist that they can thrive based on several points:
• Drive the Elizabeth Arden Brand;
• Grow the fragrance portfolio;
• Improve go-to-market capability and execution; and
• Optimize costs and reduce complexity to drive gross margin.


"The improved commercial execution and distribution platform implemented over the past eighteen months are beginning to deliver improved results," insisted Chairman E. Scott Beattie. "We continue to expect sales growth, at constant foreign currency rates, and margin expansion for fiscal 2016 and beyond driven by a stronger innovation pipeline and reinvestment of savings from our performance improvement initiatives."


The company notes that Superstart Skin Renewal Booster, which debuted in Q4, has performed ahead of plan and is boosting retail sales. The company has also enhanced its social media campaigns targeting the Elizabeth Arden brand to drive global demand.


Arden executives also pointed out that sales of non-Elizabeth Arden branded fragrances decreased by 4%, while sales of the company's designer fragrances increased by 7% during the period behind strong momentum in the John Varvatos fragrance brand and growth in Juicy Couture fragrances.