Net sales for the quarter ending March 31st were up by 63 percent, from $17.7m to $28.9m, while net profits for the period were $184,000, compared to a loss of $9.8m in the corresponding period last year.
The company won the license for the Rihanna fragrance last year, coinciding with the pop star’s rise to become one of the biggest selling artists worldwide.
This follows on from a series of fragrances launches featuring heiress and high profile socialite Paris Hilton, who some years ago helped the company to further success when those fragrances became global best-sellers.
Rihanna fragrance builds on iconic brand
“We are extremely please with the substantial progress we have made in increasing sales of our basic business while launching one new iconic brand, Rihanna, tor bring comparable sales increase to 16 percent for the year,” said Parlux CEO Fred Purches.
However, the rise in comparable sales quoted by Purches does not take into account losses from the Guess brand. The company lost the licensing rights for manufacturing cosmetics lines and fragrances under the brand at the beginning of last year.
The loss of the Guess license meant that full year sales were down from $148.1m to $123.0 sales, but the 2009/2010 fiscal sales figures included total sales of $43.0m for the Guess brand.
Discounting Guess sales, the trend is up
Parlux pointed out that, not accounting for the Guess sales, the comparison figure with the previous year was $105.1m, which gives the increase of 16 per cent for the full year that was quoted by Purches.
“We reduced our Operating Expenses by $20.0 million compared to prior year and have been able to achieve a $26.0 million dollar improvement in Operating Profit, reverting from a loss of $23.5 millionin the prior year to an Operating Profit of $2.5 million in the current year,” said Purches.
“Our balance sheet is strong, with $20.5 million in cash, no bank borrowings, and a book value of $4.91 per share. We are optimistic about our future performance.”