Revlon didn’t hit Wall Street’s expectations for the first-quarter, but it did however narrow its net loss.
The company’s net loss in the quarter was about $47 million, compared with a net loss of about $58 million in last year’s first quarter.
Revlon President and CEO Jack Stahl had this to say: “Our results in the first quarter, as expected, are beginning to reflect the actions we took in 2003 and 2004 to ratchet up our capability in the area of new products, while simultaneously increasing our investment spending behind several of our well-established franchises.”
Stahl added, “At the same time, we continue to manage our cost base, in order to create the necessary resources to invest in our brands to drive growth, and we expect these actions to benefit us as we move forward. We believe our strategy to strengthen our brands and their connection to consumers, coupled with our focus on building best-in-class retail partnerships and the capabilities of the Revlon organization, will enable us to achieve our objective of long-term, profitable growth and value creation.”
The Company took an operating loss of about $2.1 million for the first quarter compared to operating income of $20.1 million in last year’s first quarter.
According to a press release, the company made further progress to strengthen its balance sheet in the quarter, with the successful consummation of a $310 million senior notes offering and the subsequent, related redemption of the Company’s 8 1/8% and 9% senior notes. These transactions extended the maturities on the Company’s debt that would have otherwise matured in 2006 and also reduced the Company’s exposure to floating rate debt.
Revlon’s net sales in the first quarter were down nearly 2% to $301 million, compared with net sales of $308 million in the first quarter of 2004.
These numbers are the result of a lower number of North American shipments and reduced licensing revenues, as the 2004 first quarter included an approximate $5 million prepayment of a licensing renewal fee by a licensee.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
