Sales & Earnings In Brief
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
GSK's U.S. consumer business slows: With the firm's U.S. Consumer Healthcare business sales flat at $395 million in the second quarter and at $779 million in the first six months of 2010, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty calls the U.S. consumer market "a pretty dull place at the moment." During a July 21 earnings call, the executive said OTC alli weight-loss and Nicorette smoking cessation products, along with consumers moving to private label, are dragging the U.K. firm's U.S. performance. Large initial stocking of alli in Europe for its 2009 launch also hurt that market - European consumer sales dipped 2 percent to $741 million in the quarter ended June 30 - though GSK consumer sales worldwide rose 3 percent in the quarter to $1.88 billion and 6 percent in the half to $3.8 billion (1"The Tan Sheet" May 3, 2010). The company highlighted the performance of Sensodyne toothpaste, which grew 19 percent in the quarter and helped GSK's oral care category to 9 percent global growth, reaching $616 million in sales. Incidentally, Witty said the firm no longer will provide detailed earnings breakdowns for the consumer business after determining "some of our more pure play consumer competitors ... were using our disclosures against us" by predicting GSK's next moves. GSK's overall sales for the April-June period were essentially flat at $10.53 billion while first-half sales gained 7 percent to reach $22 billion