Stepan doubles 2Q 2009 profit, but sales fall

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Weight: 60 KB
• Volume: 2009
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1351-4210
• DOI: 10.1016/s1351-4210(09)70292-6

✦ Synopsis

The US cosmetics sector, which has been dominated by New York Citybased businesses, is seeing a shifting growth trend towards the West Coast, particularly to California. In fact, 11 of the firms included in HAPPI's latest annual ranking of the top 50 USbased firms in the household and products sector, are based in California. They include 13th placed Clorox with sales of $2.5 bn, and 18th placer Guthy-Renker with sales of $1.3 bn. The top spot was taken by Ohio-based Procter & Gamble (P&G), which reported estimated sales of $65 bn for household, personal care and oral care products. Corporate sales reached $83.5 bn, and net income totalled $12 bn for FY ending 30 Jun 2008. P&G is in the middle of its biggest capacity expansion project ever in all its years of business, with plans for constructing 19 manufacturing plants through 2013. The firm is planning to increase output at sites in Romania, Poland, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand and the USA. At second place is New York-based Colgate Palmolive with sales of $13.1 bn of household and personal care products. Total corporate sales reached $15.3 bn, and net income totalled $1.9 bn. The 10.5% growth in sales of oral, personal and home care products was driven by a 3.5% volume growth, 4.5% price hikes, and positive foreign exchange impact of 2.5%. Wisconsin-based SC Johnson was ranked no 3. The company reported estimated sales of $8 bn for FY ended 30 Jun 2008, including sales from food management products. Corporate sales increased by over 6%. SC Johnson's new products include the Glade Sense & Spray automatic spray, Nature's Source natural cleaners, and Pledge multi-surface cleaner. In May 2009, the company divested its Edge shave cream franchise to Energizer under a $275 M deal.