Cussons predicts perkier profits

PERSONAL care products firm PZ Cussons has said that it expects pre-tax profits for the first half of its financial year to November 30 to be slightly ahead of last year based on largely flat revenues.

The company said that profitability in Europe was slightly lower than a “strong” comparative period last year, when sales of its Carex product shot up following the Swine Flu outbreak.

However, profitability in Asia was higher as a result of “continued positive momentum”, while its performance in Africa was broadly flat due to tighter liquidity in Nigeria and uncertainty ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for next Spring.

The firm said that the UK market remains highly competitive with lots of promotional activity taking place on shower gel and handwash products.

However, it said that sales of St Tropez – the fake tan product bought for £62.5m in September – had performed well, and that plans to “finalise the future operational structure of the business” were well advanced.

“We remain cautious about the trading environment for the remainder of the year, given continued high levels of promotional activity, particularly in the UK; a challenging outlook for the consumer in a number of markets; global increases in a number of commodity costs; and potential disruption to trading from the Nigerian election process.”