Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Our first question comes from Kathleen Reed – Stanford Eagle.
Kathy Reed – Stanford Eagle
Good morning. First of all, can you just talk a little bit about SG&A spending in the quarter, if there is going to be a shift into the second quarter? I think in your prior guidance you were expecting it to be up 150 basis points year-over-year as a percent of sales and it was actually down slightly, so are we going to just see higher TV spending - and you commented a lot about all your media plans in the second quarter.
Scott Beattie
Yes, I wouldn’t read too much into that. As Steve just mentioned, we really manage the business on the two 6-month segments, the first and second quarter because of the split here in October, it’s difficult to manage specifically the calendar of shipments as well as of spend.
I think we’re very confident of our numbers for the first half, and we’ve obviously had a very strong first quarter, and as Joel went through, we have a very aggressive spend against not only our new launches and innovation but also our existing brand portfolio.
In addition to that, as I tried to state in going through the details of our international business, we’ve got great momentum in our international business. Our Elizabeth Arden brand, which many people don’t realize, 65% of that volume is in the international markets, and the Elizabeth Arden brand is growing very rapidly across all of our segments of our international business, including the PREVAGE brand. And so, combined with the strong currencies in those markets, are providing a good, solid strength to our overall business.
Kathy Reed - Stanford Eagle
But just to clarify, it sounds like if anything, you’re actually increasing or spending; you didn’t pull back on any of your spending for the first half?
Scott Beattie
No.
Kathy Reed - Stanford Eagle
And secondly, just I guess a quick question on your first-half sales guidance, because it really sounds like you had a lot of positive momentum like you just discussed in international and it sounds like you’re even getting some new distributed brands, which maybe you can comment on for mass.
And I just wondered why then you just slightly adjusted your sales guidance for the first half from 6 to 7 to 5 to 7, because if you hit that 5 it would imply kind of like only a 4% growth in the second quarter. So is that just really due to more conservative outlook for Christmas, or is there one thing that you’re particularly cautious on?
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