Second Quarter Regional Highlights U.S. second-quarter performance was in line with the company's expectations, with revenue and operating profit decreasing 6 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Beauty sales declined 11 percent due to continued weak customer purchase frequency in an environment of stepped-up competitive activity.
Reflecting ongoing, planned category repositioning, Beauty Plus sales increased 5 percent and Beyond Beauty sales declined 3 percent. Units and active Representatives in the quarter were down 12 percent and 2 percent, respectively. U.S. operating margin was 18.6 percent.
In Europe, revenue in the second quarter increased 12 percent on top of 28 percent revenue growth in the year-ago period. In local-currency terms, revenue was up 6 percent, with gains in units and active Representatives of 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
Central and Eastern Europe grew 16 percent with revenue in Russia increasing 17 percent, continuing strong market out performance but below the company's planned levels. Europe's second-quarter operating profit grew 10 percent, and operating margin was 22.4 percent.
In Latin America, broad-based strength across most of the region contributed to second-quarter revenue growth of 17 percent(10 percent in local currencies) with strong results in Brazil and Venezuela, in particular, and a solid increase in Mexico's Beauty sales offsetting softness in several non-core categories in that market.
Active Representatives and units in the region both grew 9 percent. Operating profit increased by 13 percent, and operating margin was 25.0 percent.
marketing@alchempro.com
