Helen Of Troy said sales in its Home & Outdoor segment, formerly Housewares, grew 29.8 percent in the fourth quarter ended February 28, with about half the growth attributable to the December 2021 acquisition of Osprey. Core sales growth of 15.2 percent was led by Hydro Flask.
“Home and outdoor sales grew significantly in the fourth quarter, aided by the contribution of Osprey,” said Julien Mininberg, CEO, on a call with analysts. “This comes on top of double-digit growth in the comparison period. The growth this quarter was led by Hydro Flask, which continued to grow market share.”
The segment, which was renamed due to last year’s addition of the Osprey brand, also includes the OXO housewares brand.
Home & Outdoor revenue in the quarter increased $48.4 million to $210.8 million. The growth was driven by an increase from organic business of $24.7 million, or 15.2 percent, and growth from the acquisition of Osprey of $24.4 million, or 15.0 percent.
The organic business increase was primarily due to higher brick-and-mortar and online channel sales driven by consumer demand, accelerated retailer orders to improve inventory levels and in anticipation of price increases, higher sales in the club and closeout channels, the impact of customer price increases related to rising freight and product costs, growth in international sales, and the favorable comparative impact of COVID-19-reduced store traffic and orders that were not able to be shipped at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 due to Winter Storm Uri.
Operating income climbed 39.7 percent to $22.6 million, or 10.7 percent of segment net sales revenue, compared to $16.2 million, or 10.0 percent of segment revenue a year ago. The 0.7 percentage point increase was primarily due to favorable operating leverage, a more favorable brand mix and a decrease in distribution expense. These factors were partially offset by the net dilutive impact of inflationary costs and related customer price increases, higher inventory obsolescence expense, increased personnel expense, higher acquisition-related expenses, and higher amortization expense.
Adjusted operating income in the Home & Outdoor segment increased 45.2 percent to $27.5 million, or 13.1 percent of segment net sales revenue, compared to $19.0 million, or 11.7 percent of segment net sales revenue.
For the full year, sales in the Home & Outdoor segment grew 19.0 percent to $865.8 million. Operating income climbed 10.1 percent to $134.9 million from $122.5 million. On an adjusted basis, operating earnings improved 14.3 percent to $154.4 million from $135.1 million.
For fiscal 2022, Helen of Troy expects Home & Outdoor net sales growth of 19 percent to 21 percent, including net sales from Osprey of $180 million to $185 million.
Photo courtesy Helen of Troy/Osprey
