WD-40 posts Q3 sales decline
San Diego-based WD-40 Company reported a sales decline of 14%, as the global company was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Total net sales for the third quarter were $98.2 million, compared to 114.0 million in the same quarter last year.
In the U.S. however, sales increased 1% compared to the prior year quarter. The company credited "increased demand for cleaning products as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic" for U.S. gains.
The company also saw gains in Australia. “The increase in sales in Australia was mainly driven by increased demand for Solvol and no vac as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In most other places around the world – the company operates in 176 countries -- the COVID-19 weighed heavily on sales. In the Americas, net sales declined 5% to $50.1 million. That decline was primarily due to 46% lower sales of WD-40 Multi-Use Product in Latin America, which experienced severe lockdowns of most of the countries in the region.
Net sales of homecare and cleaning products increased 10% in the third quarter when compared to the prior year fiscal quarter. The increased demand for these products, the company said, resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the company’s maintenance products segment – the segment that has been strategically emphasized over homecare and cleaning – saw a decline of 16% in the quarter.
Bottom line: Net income for the third quarter was $14.5 million, a decrease of 20 percent compared to the prior year fiscal quarter. Year-to-date net income was $41.0 million, a decrease of 13 percent from the prior year fiscal period.
What the CEO said: "I have often said that physical awareness and mental awareness of our product – or said simply, making our end-users aware of our products and making them easy to buy – is core to our continued success," said Ridge. "COVID-19 has reinforced this lesson for me. In geographies and trade channels where our products remained easy to buy, like in e-commerce and in certain countries that were not subject to movement restrictions, we performed very well in the third quarter."
More information: Visit the company’s earnings release here.