NuSkin continues to march on a high growth path

Skin care specialist NuSkin continues to generate strong sales growth in the latest quarter despite concerns about lower consumer spending.

The company, which is registered in the US but does most of its business in the Asian markets, posted a 7 percent sales increase in the third quarter to $310.3m.

Benefits of wide geographical mix

“Our increased geographic diversity improves our stability amidst a fluctuating world economy,” said NuSkin CEO Truman Hunt.

Breaking the results down by region, North Asia generated quarterly revenue of $142.8 million compared to $142.6 million in the same period last year. A local currency decline of 12 percent in Japanese sales held the company back.

The South Asia/Pacific region performed better with sales growing 14% year-over-year to $28.9 million.

But unusually in the current climate growth was highest in Europe and the Americas. Sales in the Americas rose to $57.3m from $52.5m last year and third-quarter revenue from Europe surged 62 percent to $29.9m.

Favorable currency translation effects, strong performance in Eastern Europe and a higher distributor count helped feed the growth figures on the continent.

Operating income for the quarter rose 57 percent which was achieved thanks to higher sales and continued efforts to improve efficiency on a global level.

Strong profits but below expectations

This helped the company improve its net income level which rose to $16.76m from $13.55m last year. Although this represents a 23.6 percent increase on last year, it was still below analyst expectations, according to Reuters.

Earnings for the quarter were negatively impacted $0.08 per share by translation of foreign currency-denominated balances.

Looking forward Nu Skin did not announce a forecast for earnings per share. The company said exchange rates were too volatile to predict earnings figures with sufficient accuracy.

However sales guidance was released and the company expects the recent launch of its ageLOC anti- aging technology to help it achieve local currency revenue growth of around 5 percent.