Weider starts the fiscal year with a smile
and nutritional supplements, has announced a strong start to fiscal
2005.
The company's net sales were $69.8 million for the first quarter, compared to $63.6 million for the same period last year, while its net income had risen from $2.2 million, or $0.08 per share a year ago to $3.7 million, or $0.14 per share, today.
On the back of this good news Wieder's shares soared 17 percent on Friday, finishing the month of September on a 41 percent increase.
"We are encouraged with the continued growth in our revenue line and the profit performance in the first quarter. During the quarter, we remained focused on branded growth initiatives in each of our business units," said Bruce Wood, the company president and CEO.
Weider also noted that it plans to continue the process of selling its branded business, as it had previously announced in August.
The agreement made public in the summer was that Weider would sell certain of its domestic and international branded businesses to Weider Health and Fitness, a privately held company headquartered in California and the majority stockholder of Weider Nutrition International.
The purchase price was said to be approximately $7.6 million and the company anticipates closing the transaction in the next fiscal quarter.
"The sale of the Weider branded business will allow us to focus additional resources on our profitable core businesses: the Schiff nutritional supplements brand, which includes the market-leading Schiff Move Free product line and the Germany-based Haleko business, which includes our Multipower and Multaben brands," said Wood at the time.
The company is at present launching Schiff Lubriflex3 - a new joint care product - and enhancing the Schiff Move Free range.
"While we foresee near-term margin pressures due to these marketing initiatives as well as other factors, including raw material cost increases, we remain optimistic about the long-term outlook for our company and the industry," concluded Wood.
Weider must be especially pleased with this growth considering it was not long ago that the company was struggling with sales, reporting a a net loss of $8.6 million in fiscal 2003.
