Procter & Gamble is expecting continued shifts in consumer shopping behaviors in a post-coronavirus world.
Over the past year, P&G has experienced heightened demand for family, fabric and home-care products and less demand for luxury skin-care line SK-II, deodorant and grooming, said P&G’s chief financial officer Jon Moeller on a call with journalists Wednesday. The pandemic also resulted in North American market growth, while business struggled in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, he said.
“As and when we’re out of COVID[-19], we expect some of the current tailwinds to our business will dissipate, and some very strong headwinds should abate or disappear,” Moeller said. “The relevance of our categories in consumers’ lives potentially increases. We will likely become a forever-altered cleaning, health and hygiene focus for consumers, who use our products daily or multiple times a day.”
Moeller also predicted a lasting shift to e-commerce, an area where P&G grew sales by almost 50 percent in the first half of the fiscal year, and continued to see an increased demand for “reputable brands.”
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Moeller spoke Wednesday as P&G reported earnings for its second fiscal quarter ended in December. Net sales for the full company were $19.7 billion, up 8 percent year-over-year, with net earnings of about $3.9 billion, an increase of 4 percent.
For beauty, which includes Olay, SK-II, Pantene and other brands, net sales gained 6 percent year-over-year to $3.8 billion in the quarter. Olay skin care, Safeguard hand soap and hand sanitizer launches helped boost sales, P&G said. Hair care organic sales increased in the mid-single digits.
The grooming segment, which houses brands including Gillette and Venus, posted a 5 percent increase in net sales to $1.7 billion. Appliance sales were up 20 percent from the prior-year period, P&G said.
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