New York (AFP) – Dominant international home goods producer Procter & Gamble raised its profit forecast for the year after reporting higher second-quarter earnings Thursday, but sales growth slowed.
P&G, whose brands include Tide detergent, Old Spice deodorant and Gillette shaving products, reported quarterly profits of $3.7 billion, a 16.4 percent increase from the year-ago period.
Sales rose 4.6 percent compared to a year earlier, rising to $18.2 billion, but that gain was a bit below the 6.6 percent surge in the prior quarter.
The company had “a very strong quarter all the way around,” Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller told reporters on a conference call.
Sales were boosted by new premium-oriented products across its portfolio, especially in beauty and health care, where the company highlighted growth in the Vicks brand, which makes cold and cough medicine.
The consumer goods giant also has made progress in the grooming category which has been notoriously weak in recent years amid rising competition from shaving startups and a societal shift towards facial hair.
P&G has launched new shaving appliances, as well as products to address razor bumps under its Gillette brand. In the second quarter, grooming sales rose two percent.
Moeller said shaving trends remain challenging for the company, but he sees opportunity in the shift.
“There are all sorts of angles of opportunities to serve that consumer better than they are being served today, whether that’s trimming or cutting facial hair in a way that allows him to be confident in the way he looks and presents himself,” Moeller said .
P&G’s shares price fell 2.0 percent to $123.75 in pre-market trading.
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