Tupperware finishes year with strong cosmetics sales

Beauty product sales rose in line with overall growth at 19 percent over the latest quarter helping to take the company's top line to $577m. Tupperware has diversified in recent years so that while the direct seller's origins lie in plastic food containers, beauty sales now account for 40 percent of its turnover. The company's performance in the fourth quarter was well above its expectations helping sales for the whole year to rise 14 percent to $2bn. It had previously released guidance predicting sales to increase by only 7 percent to $1.93 - $1.94bn. Tupperware's high sales boosted profit figures with operating income for the year increasing 28 percent to $194m. Breaking the figures down by region, Asia Pacific led the way with sales growth of 24 percent in the fourth quarter supported by an 11 percent increase in the sales force. Furthermore operating profit in the region comfortably exceeded sales growth, increasing by 48 percent reflecting the higher share of sales from Australia and improved expense management in Japan In North America sales increased 12 percent despite a dent in the figures at the end of December after a fire at the company's main US warehouse. On the other side of the Atlantic sales in the European business unit rose 19 percent with Russia, Turkey and South Africa being the key drivers. In addition to the impact of emerging markets, the Florida-based company benefited from the current weakness of the dollar with full year sales growing 9 percent in volume and 14 percent in value terms. "Upwards of 84 percent of our sales and even more of our profit come from international markets,"​ said Tupperware CEO Rick Goings. "This means that our profit rises on dollar weakness." ​ Looking to 2008 the company expects to continue to perform strongly with sales predicted to increase by 8 to 10 percent. "As we look ahead to 2008, we're planning to capitalize on our year end sales force size advantage of 15 percent to further grow our business,"​ added Goings. Tupperware's beauty and personal care brands include Avroy Shlain, BeautiControl, Fuller, NuturCare, Nutrimetics, Nuvo and Swissgarde.