Energizer to cut more than 10% jobs

Energizer said it wants to streamline its lineup of household products to allow it to focus on the core battery business.

Plans include closing or streamlining battery factories and packaging facilities in the United States, Malaysia and Canada and streamlining lights manufacturing in China. Energizer expects pre-tax cost savings of about $200 million from the restructuring, and said the majority of its charges should be recorded within the next 12 to 18 months.

St. Louis-based Energizer is best known for its namesake batteries. Its other products include flashlights, Eveready batteries, Playtex tampons, and Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen.

The details of the restructuring come after other household products makers such as P&G, Colgate-Palmolive Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp announced plans to trim their ranks.

Energizer was spun off from Ralston Purina Co in 2000. Since then it has grown with the acquisitions of Schick Wilkinson Sword, Playtex, the Edge and Skintimate shaving prep business and American Safety Razor.

LOOKING AHEAD

Energizer also said its profit rose to $117 million, or $1.84 per share, in the fiscal fourth quarter ended on Sept. 30, from $45.8 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. Earnings excluding items such as restructuring costs rose to $1.76 per share from $1.10 per share and exceeded analysts' average forecast of $1.55, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales of household products fell due in part to hurricane-driven sales a year earlier, the loss of shelf space at Walmart and continued weakness in the battery category.

Household product sales fell 3.7 percent on an organic basis, which typically excludes acquisitions, divestitures and foreign exchange. Organic sales of personal care items such as razors were essentially flat.

Energizer forecast fiscal 2013 adjusted earnings of $6.75 to $7.00 per share, with sales up in a low-single digit percentage range. Personal care sales should rise at a mid-single digit clip this year, while household products sales are expected to fall at a low-single digit rate, the company said.

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