Global consumer companies wary of Covid-19 surge in India
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With India’s Covid cases at a record, the second wave has seen the country’s healthcare system collapse in Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere. Fresh curbs on mobility in several financially crucial states could hit nationwide consumer goods supply and demand.
PTI
Global consumer companies including
Whirlpool, Procter & Gamble, Pernod Ricard, Coca-Cola and Skechers said increasing Covid-19 cases and the fresh restrictions imposed could hit their India businesses, which had just started recovering from the pandemic-induced slowdown.
“We have India fully being hit by the Covid wave and we have several thousand employees in India,” Whirlpool Corp chairman Marc Bitzer told investors recently. “We have, in the month of April, 576 colleagues who have got positively diagnosed. So it is very real, and that means a lot of pain and anxiety for a lot of our employees while at the same time (there are
Skechers USA’s first-quarter earnings topped Wall Street’s target on robust international gains, driven by China. Domestic wholesale sales were down slightly due to logistics challenges, but Skechers’ officials said demand for its comfort footwear remained strong. They also expect to gain market share as Nike streamlines its wholesale account base.
‘We welcome all of our competitors to pull out of the wholesale market if they so choose, because we stand ready to serve those customers, many of them we work very closely with to support the brand,” said John Vandemore, CFO, on a conference call. An analyst had asked about the opportunity for Skechers presented as a “large competitor” exits several wholesale accounts.
Skechers USA Inc (SKX) Q1 2021 Earnings Call Transcript fool.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fool.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Skechers USA posted flat sales in the 2020 fourth quarter even as the direct-to-consumer (DTC) business took a hit from closed owned-retail stores and the subsidiary’s business in Latin America and Europe surged with strong double-digit growth. The company saw strong growth in its e-commerce business, but Skechers’ focus on its owned-retail stores limited its DTC business opportunities.
In the fourth quarter, sales totaled $1.32 billion, a decrease of half of a percent versus the prior-year comp period, which represented a record Q4 for the company. On a constant-currency basis, sales decreased 2.5 percent due to a mid- to high-single decline in DTC sales, which was negatively impacted by reduced traffic in the company’s brick & mortar stores, a result of the “stay at home guidelines and an overall decline in foot traffic and tourism.” Skechers saw International sales improve 1.1 percent versus the comp period last year while its domestic business decreased 2.8 percent.