For its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, Bohemia, NY-based nutritional supplements manufacturer/marketer NBTY saw net income decline 10%, to $46 million, compared with $51 million for the same period last year. But net sales increased 1%, to $506 million. Company officials attributed the drop in net income to a decrease in earnings for the direct response/e-commerce division.
Sales in the direct response/e-commerce division, which includes the Puritan’s Pride catalog, sunk 28%, to $37 million, compared with $52 million for the same period last year. A company release said that a “highly “highly promotional priced catalog” was used in the first quarter of fiscal 2007, and not in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. “Therefore, in this less promotional quarter, direct response realized lower results.”
For the first quarter, online sales increased to 40% of total direct sales, compared with 36% last year.NBTY chairman/CEO Scott Rudolph said in the release: “We are confident that the initiatives we instituted in our direct response business will be the cornerstone for generating positive results.”