Arden net sales up
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Fragrance marketer Elizabeth Arden's net sales rose 3.1% to $1.1 bil. for the fiscal year ended June 30, compared with the same period last year. The increase was driven by Elizabeth Arden brand, which enjoyed a 13.5% net sales increase for fourth fiscal quarter. "Just over two years ago, we embarked on a global re-engineering of our major business processes and the implementation of a new enterprise software system to improve the efficiencies and scalability of our business," E. Scott Beattie, chairman and CEO, explains in Aug. 12 release. Firm realigned its global marketing/sales organizations and dropped one-third of product inventory to generate $100 mil. in operating cash flow and become more nimble in its push into global markets (1"The Rose Sheet" July 5, 2010). As a result of the changes, earnings grew by 85% to $19.5 mil. for fiscal 2010. "The progress we have made with these initiatives is evident in our results, as we exceeded our targets for our key metrics," Beattie says