Photo: The current European headquarters of Avon Products Inc., located in the United Kingdom.
Avon Products Inc. saw a quarterly profit on results that narrowly missed analysts’ expectations, according to the beauty company’s Thursday release.
In the quarter ended Sept. 30, revenue dipped 2 percent year-over-year to $1.4 billion. Barring the impact of currency exchange, revenue was up 4 percent at the New York-based company, which sells its wares overseas after spinning off its North America business in a $435 million deal with Cerberus Capital Management LP, completed in March. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted quarterly revenue of $1.42 billion.
On a regional basis, sales fell 4 percent in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) segment, 6 percent in North Latin America and 9 percent in the Asia Pacific region. South Latin America countered with a 4 percent increase.
Chief executive Sheri McCoy provided a positive report on the company’s turnaround efforts, which include trimming about 7 percent of its workforce and moving its corporate headquarters to the United Kingdom.
“Avon’s third-quarter results reflect broad-based performance improvements resulting in local currency sales growth across our top markets and significant operating margin expansion versus the prior year,” said McCoy. “We have also taken actions to significantly improve our balance sheet and have accelerated the pace of our 2016 cost savings initiatives.”
In the most recent quarter, the company cleared a profit of $35.6 million, up from a year-earlier loss of $697 million. Earnings rose to 7 cents a share from a loss of $1.58 a share. Adjusted earnings were 2 cents a share, up from a loss of 11 cents a year ago, but falling short of the 3 cents estimated by analysts.
