Ecolab Delivers Record Fourth Quarter Earnings
finance.yahoo.com
Fourth quarter reported EPS $0.56, +17%; adjusted EPS $0.60, +9%
Adjusted 2010 EPS +12% to $2.23; 2011 adjusted EPS forecasted to rise 11%-13%
Europe restructuring announced; expected to accelerate profit growth for region
CEO comment
Commenting on the quarter, Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolab’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “Good growth in our global lodging and food & beverage businesses, along with stronger results from our services and international operations, offset the still-challenging U.S. foodservice environment. We delivered another solid earnings gain in the fourth quarter and another double-digit gain for the year.
“Importantly, we see improving conditions ahead. Our plans to improve our European business competitiveness and performance, and the Europe restructuring plans that we are developing, reflect the confidence we have that we can accelerate the benefits that were foreseen as part of our systems investment. We fully expect the next several years will be a period of significant development and improvement in Europe results as we drive process change and better efficiency. We look for approximately 100 basis points of operating margin improvement in our EMEA region in 2011, and at least double that in each of 2012 and 2013. Most exciting, we expect these actions will improve our ability to meet or exceed our customers’ product and service expectations.
“In 2011 we will continue to focus on our top line growth drivers and margin expansion, and invest in the key resources to drive long term growth. We are also taking actions in all of our regions to accelerate growth and offset the raw material cost increases through appropriate pricing and new product launches. We believe the sum of these actions will yield improving sales and expanding earnings comparisons as the year progresses, enabling us to deliver yet another superior year of business growth and shareholder returns, while also setting the stage for accelerating growth in the following years.” |
