Sally Beauty revenues decline, launches international restructuring plan

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Nov 16, 2017

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. announced on Wednesday a decline in fourth quarter and full year net sales, which has prompted the launch of an international restructuring plan (the “International Restructuring Plan”) focused on significantly improving the profitability of its international businesses.

 
Following a year of transition which included the successful completion of its 2017 Restructuring Plan, the Texas-based company saw consolidated net sales fall 0.4 percent to $3.94 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017. Meanwhile, same store sales declined 0.7 percent.
 
Reported operating earnings and operating margin for the full fiscal year were $478.6 million and 12.2 percent, respectively, compared to reported operating earnings and operating margin of $498.3 million and 12.6 percent, respectively, in the prior year.

In the fourth quarter, consolidated net sales were equally down 0.2 percent to $974.2 million, while same store sales decreased 1.4 percent. Fourth quarter results were negatively impacted by several natural disasters that occurred in the quarter.
 
“Driving revenue and earnings growth remains our top priority,” said Chris Brickman, President and Chief Executive Officer, in a news statement. “To that end, today we are announcing the commencement of a restructuring of our international operations in order to leverage the full scale of our consolidated European business and deliver additional cost savings. At the same time, we are making investments in our e-commerce capabilities that will allow us to support two-day delivery to more than 90% of U.S. households by the middle of fiscal 2018. In addition, we have planned a number of exciting new product launches and improvements to our CRM, marketing and promotional strategies that we expect will build the foundation to drive future growth.
 
“We believe that these changes, combined with the strength and stability of our large and growing Beauty Systems Group distribution business, will keep us on the path to long-term earnings growth,” Brickman concluded.
 
The company expects to incur restructuring charges in the range of $12 million to $14 million, with approximately $10 million to be recorded in fiscal 2018, related primarily to potential employee separation costs, as well as annualized benefits in the range of approximately $12 million to $14 million from the initiative, with a benefit of approximately $8 million in fiscal 2018.
 
Still, the company expects consolidated same store sales to be approximately flat in fiscal 2018.