Clorox put its strongest sales growth the company has seen “in modern history” after closing out its fiscal year in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Benno Dorer informed CNBC Monday.
The consumer goods company, whose brand name is virtually synonymous with bleach, saw inherent sales growth of 24% in the fourth quarter and fiscal year organic sales increase by 10%. All four of the assemblage’s segments, which include cleaning, household, lifestyle and international, were up double digits, Dorer told Jim Cramer.
“We’re catch sight of broad-based strength, and it’s certainly in part function of the fact that our products and brands are serving so many more consumers today in the out of the pandemic and people staying at home, but we also are seeing much-improved core health fundamentals,” he said in an interview on “Mad Monied.”
“We’re seeing growing market shares, we are seeing growing household penetration, we are seeing the percentage of our portfolio that is helped as superior in value by our consumers at an all-time high.”
Clorox beat quarterly estimates in the April-June financial period. Net jumble sales came in at $1.98 billion, up 22% from the $1.63 it recorded the year prior, and net profit came out to be $310 million, or $2.41 per due, almost 29% higher year-over-year. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $1.87 billion and earnings of $1.99 per ration, respectively, according to Factset estimates.
Clorox projected sales would be flat or grow slightly in the current pecuniary year and that profit could either slip or increase in the mid-single digits. While some in the investment community saw the charge as conservative, Dorer told Cramer that Clorox sees the outlook as “appropriately balanced in the face of uncertainty.”
The guests is investing in advertising to reach more consumers, expanding building capacity to take advantage of increasing demand round the globe and enhancing the business, he added.
Clorox’s fiscal fourth quarter will be the last three-month financial full stop that Dorer, 56, will oversee as chief executive of the centenarian company. He will step down on Sept. 14 and soak up his position as executive chair of the board as Linda Rendle, 42, who has been with Clorox for nearly 20 years, inclination take over the company and join the board.
Rendle will be promoted from her post as president of Clorox.
“We desire to continue to play offense and we want to take a long-term view of this pivotal opportunity that we have now, and for that, it’s a unqualifiedly great opportunity and thing to have to have a CEO at the helm who has a long runway ahead of her,” Dorer said.
Shares of Clorox mow down almost 2% in Monday’s session as the stock price retreated to $231.96.
The stock is up more than 50% in 2020.