PG Procter and Gamble Co

By Aisha Al-Muslim 

Procter & Gamble Co. reported strong quarterly sales growth, continuing a streak of robust gains and prompting the consumer-products giant to raise its outlook for the year even as one of its closest rivals reported weaker results.

The maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors said organic sales, a closely watched metric that strips out currency moves, acquisitions and divestitures, rose 4% in the fiscal second quarter. Organic sales were boosted by 1% due to higher pricing.

Beauty products fueled the gains, with organic sales rising 8%, but the company reported growth across a number of categories. Only the Gillette razor business posted a decline in organic sales in the latest quarter.

Rival Kimberly-Clark Corp., which makes Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, reported falling profits in the same quarter as it was squeezed by rising commodity costs and currency swings. The smaller company said organic sales rose 3% from a year before.

Shares of P&G jumped 4% in premarket trading, while Kimberly-Clark slipped 2%.

Despite a robust U.S. economy and strong consumer spending, the companies have encountered increased competition, a consumer shift toward smaller brands, and higher costs of raw materials and transportation.

After trying to combat weak demand by lowering prices, P&G changed course late last year, saying it would increase prices in late 2018 and early 2019 for several products, including its Pampers, Bounty, Charmin and Puffs brands. Kimberly-Clark and other consumer-goods makers have followed P&G's lead on raising prices.

So far, price increases on various products have been announced but not fully implemented, P&G's finance chief, Jon Moeller, said in conference call with reporters.

The organic growth in P&G's fiscal second quarter matched the first quarter, which was the best growth rate in several years. For a long stretch, P&G's quarterly organic sales had generally risen 2% or less -- lackluster growth that attracted a proxy fight from activist investor Trian Fund Management, whose co-founder Nelson Peltz now holds a seat on the P&G board.

While sales rose for Tide detergent and Pampers diapers, organic sales fell 3% in the grooming business, which includes the Gillette brand. The established brand has faced competition from upstarts and has resorted to lowering prices to maintain its leading market share.

Last week, Gillette released a controversial ad campaign invoking the #MeToo movement. The nearly two-minute ad posted online after the second quarter ended. The ad received mixed reactions from customers.

In the conference call, Mr. Moeller described the grooming business as a "long-purchase cycle business" with some people going as much as a year without buying shaving products. However, he said, Gillette continues to grow sales and users.

Overall, P&G said profit rose 28% to $3.19 billion in the second quarter, which ended Dec. 31.

Core earnings were $1.25 a share, beating the $1.21 a share analysts polled by Refinitiv were looking for. Core earnings strip out currency moves, acquisitions and divestitures.

Net sales were $17.44 billion, unchanged from the previous year, but unfavorable foreign-exchange fluctuations hurt sales by 4%.

P&G increased the high end of its full-year forecast for organic sales to rise 2% to 4%, compared with its prior estimates of 2% to 3%.

Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark reported quarterly earnings of $411 million, down 33% from a year earlier. Total sales fell 1% to $4.57 billion, hurt by currency swings.

In October, Kimberly-Clark said it was switching chief executives in the midst of a restructuring program intended to boost profits as the company struggled with weak sales.

Michael Hsu, the former president and chief operating officer, who became chief executive earlier this month, said Wednesday that the company expects 2019 to be challenging but "somewhat better than in 2018."

--Robert Barba contributed to this article.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at aisha.al-muslim@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2019 09:03 ET (14:03 GMT)

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