Let’s take a look at these companies’ sales performances one by one…



AVON

Following the third quarter results, Jan Zijderveld, Avon CEO, said, “We continue to execute our Open Up turnaround strategy, with productivity gains driving adjusted operating margin expansion and improved free cash flow… As expected, revenues declined as we continued to make sharper choices designed to drive a healthier, more sustainable and more profitable business.” The four pillars of Avon’s Open Up Strategy is as follows:

In fact, Avon’s global revenue declined by 17% for the quarter versus last year, to $1.2 billion. All four regions reported declines: South Latin America -23%, Asia-Pacific -12%, North Latin America -11%, and EMEA -10%.

During the earnings call with the investors, management said they were focusing on “digital”, saying they had been “kick-starting the development of Avon beauty entrepreneurs as Avon influencers and bloggers to accelerate social selling,” and added, they would “continue to expand new digital tools that enable consumers to shop anywhere, anytime, and improve representative’s experience with better digital tools and training to run her business.”

Avon is aiming to expand its digital reach by initiating a “School of Bloggers” to help Avon’s micro-influencers develop social networks that get them closer to the customers and attract a new generation of representatives.

In 2018, Avon had an 8% reduction in its head count and continued this in the first half of 2019 with a further 15% reduction. As a result, Avon announced it had reduced the total workforce from 25,000 people in 2017-2018 to less than 20,000 today. It also have so far reduced the number of SKUs by 21%.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Natura, the cosmetics giant from Brazil would acquire Avon. This transaction is expected to be finalized early in 2020.

For more on Avon’s third quarter performance, please click here and here.

HERBALIFE

Herbalife’s third quarter net sales of $1.2 billion meant a slight increase (0.1%) compared to the third quarter of 2018.

Asia-Pacific region reported 18% growth in Q3, North America 7%, and EMEA 3%. Sales in China was drastically down by 22%. However, this is still an improvement as the previous quarter revenue growth in China was even worse (-35%). South & Central America and Mexico business units reported declining sales, too (-9% and -4%, respectively).

Commenting on the China market, CEO Michael Johnson said, “As we projected last quarter, the trends in our China business improved in the third quarter and our recovery in that market is on track. The strategies in China are progressing. And we continue to expect further improving trends in the fourth quarter.”

Herbalife management announced their full-year sales outlook as between -1.2% and 0.1% for 2019. For 2020, though, Herbalife aims at growing again (by between 1% and 7%). As you can see on the chart above, Herbalife has not been able to increase its sales in the last five-year period.

In a separate press release following the quarterly results, Herbalife announced its CEO transition plan that would go into effect in March 2020. According to this, Michael Johnson who has been serving as CEO on an interim basis, would remain as the Chairman of the Board, and Co-President and Chief Health and Nutrition Officer John Agwunobi would become the new CEO.

For more on Herbalife’s third quarter performance, please click here and here.

NU SKIN

“Revenue came in slightly below expectation, primarily due to the challenging regulatory environment in Mainland China, where meeting restrictions continued throughout the quarter. Despite this, our sequential sales leader trends stabilized both in China and globally, and recent product introductions and business incentives drove year-over-year increases in customer acquisition,” commented Ritch Wood, CEO of Nu Skin.

Nu Skin reported $590 million revenue in the third quarter which was 13% less than last year same quarter’s figure ($675 million). The highest decrease came from China (-23%), company’s largest region that generates more than 1/3 of its global volume. In the third quarter, Nu Skin’s all regions but Japan (+2%) reported negative growths.

For the whole year, management expects its revenue to be between $2.41b-$2.43b in 2019. This is 9-10% lower than Nu Skin’s 2018 sales.

For more on Nu Skin’s third quarter performance, please click here and here.

TUPPERWARE

Apparently, Tupperware’s difficult times are not over. It reported declining sales for the third quarter in a row this year. The first quarter was -10%, the second was -11%, and this last quarter’s revenue growth performance was -14%.

On the regional level, South America reported -17%, North America -16%, Asia-Pacific -12%, and Europe, also -12%. Tupperware’s active sales force was 546,000, down 8% from last year’s same period.

“Sales for the third quarter ended in line with our forecasted guidance as the challenging trends we’ve been experiencing in Brazil, China, and US and Canada persisted as we expected,” said Tricia Stitzel, company Chairman and CEO. “We understand that we need to live up to the challenges of being a competitive global business and we need to drive rapid improvement. We can and we will,” she added.

As far as the year-end forecast is concerned, the management expects a 12-14% sales decrease as compared to 2018. This will be Tupperware’s lowest yearly sales in more than a decade.

Tupperware shares tanked last Friday, after the company said it would suspend dividends. Tupperware share price is down 67% as compared to beginning of 2019.

For more on Tupperware’s third quarter performance, please click here and here.



USANA

Following the disappointments in the first and the second quarters (7% and 15% declines in sales, respectively), USANA reported a negative growth in the third quarter as well: -12%.  USANA’s total number of actives at the end of the third quarter was 558,000, compared to 615,000 in the prior-year period.

CEO Kevin Guest said, “Although we continue to face a challenging sales environment in China and other regions, we were pleased to see sales in several markets improve on a consecutive quarter basis… We also recognize, however, that we still have work to do in the Southeast Asia Pacific and Americas/Europe regions towards regaining sales momentum.”

All regions contributed to the declining sales in Q3: The largest region China was down 19%, North Asia was again, -17%, Americas & Europe -9%, and Southeast Asia Pacific -8%. China generates more than half of company’s global volume and sales in this region was down 23% in the second quarter, too.

Management announced USANA would be hosting its Annual China Sales Meeting in November. 10,000 people are expected to attend this event in Macau and at this event, the attendees will be offered “a preview USANA’s plans for China in 2020”.

At the end of the quarter the company updated its sales outlook for 2019 as between $1.030 billion and $1.045 billion (was previously between $1.020 and $1.060 billion). This outlook shows USANA’s year-end sales will be less than last year’s ($1.189 billion).

For more on USANA’s third quarter performance, please click here and here.

Click this link for our previous Quarterly Reviews of major direct selling companies.

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Hakki Ozmorali is the Principal of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting and online publishing firm in Canada, specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.

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The post 2019 Means Declining Revenue for Some Major Direct Sellers appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

This week I have the quarterly growth analysis that I have been doing for several years. It focuses on the largest public direct sales companies and as far as I am concerned, gives an insight on the global industry’s direction.

Previously, this analysis had included Oriflame as well, but as this company decided to go private (i.e. its shares would not be traded on the stock exchange) last May, we no longer have access to its public figures.

AVON

Avon’s second quarter revenue was $1,174.8 million, down 13% from 2018 Q2. All of its four regions reported declining sales last quarter: EMEA -15%,  South Latin America -14%,  North Latin America -7%, and Asia-Pacific -4%. Active representatives declined 10%, too, with decreases reported in all regions.

Jan Zijderveld, Avon CEO, said, “We continued to execute our Open Up strategy, with pricing and productivity gains which drove adjusted operating margin expansion and improved free cash flow. Our focus on productivity in the second quarter, including less discounting, more effective incentives, optimizing promotions and more favorable mix, led to a 5% improvement in average representative sales with price/mix up 9%.” This clearly showed management’s focus was on productivity and profitability rather than growth.

Miguel Fernandez, Global President, explained how their focus had been shaping in terms of recruiting new reps. He said, “The previous recruiting narrative that we had in the company for many years was ‘Come to Avon because you’re going to get great products at the best price’. So, in many cases we were recruiting the consumer that was looking for a discount… We’re stepping away from that.”

You will remember that Avon was acquired by Natura, the cosmetics giant of Brazil in last May. This acquisition is expected to be completed by early 2020.

For more on Avon’s second quarter performance, please click here and here.



HERBALIFE

Herbalife reported net sales of $1.2 billion, a decrease of 3.5% compared to the second quarter of 2018. The worst performance came from China: -35%. South & Central America came up with -13%. Remaining four regions of Herbalife reported positive figures: Asia-Pacific 18%, North America 6%, Mexico 3%, and EMEA 1%. Excluding China, its net sales grew 5.4%.

Chairman and CEO Michael Johnson said, “Our second quarter results were within our guidance range. We delivered year-over-year net sales growth in 4 of our 6 regions. We reported year-over-year net sales growth in 8 of our top 10 countries. However, we recognize China is an issue and we have a plan in place that is working.”

Herbalife’s growth expectation for the whole year of 2019 is between -1.7% and +2.8%.  As of mid-2019, Herbalife’s sales is down 2% versus last year.

For more on Herbalife’s second quarter performance, please click here and here.

NATURA

Natura’s consolidate sales was up 10% in the second quarter, reaching R$ 6,319 million (approx. USD 1.6 billion) as of mid-year.

Natura & Co.’s consolidated reporting currently includes Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop. Natura’s own revenue was up 7% in the first half, The Body Shop’s 9%, and Aesop’s 27%.

Commenting on the results, Natura & Co. Chairman Roberto Marques was happy, saying, “All three of our existing brands contributed to this strong performance. Natura posted a sharp improvement in Brazil despite a weak CFT market… The Body Shop’s transformation is advancing. Sales grew despite the closure of underperforming 37 stores… Aesop’s profitable growth continues.” Then, he added the acquisition of Avon was “a decisive step in the creation of a multi-brand, multi-channel, purpose-driven group.

Currently, units’ shares in the group revenue are as follows: Natura 63%, 28%, and Aesop 9%.

For more on Natura’s second quarter performance, please click here.

NU SKIN

“Our second-quarter results were negatively impacted by limited sales meetings, media scrutiny and consumer sentiment in Mainland China in connection with the recently completed 100-day review of the nutrition and direct sales industries,” said Ritch Wood, CEO of Nu Skin.

Nu Skin reported $624 million sales last quarter. This was 4% less than last year same quarter’s figure ($704 million). Of the seven regions, only Japan reported growth (2%) and China dropped the most (-24%). China is Nu skin’s biggest market with its more than 1/3 share in the global sales.

During the earnings call following the quarter results, Nu Skin management stressed the fact that China would remain as their top priority. They explained three specific initiatives: Launch of a new product, new business incentives to improve sales leader productivity, and initiatives focusing on customer acquisition and retention including a new customer referral program.

Management’s revenue expectation for 2019 is:  $2.48 billion to $2.52 billion or -6% to -8%. Nu Skin’s 2019 mid-year revenue is 7% less than last year’s.

For more on Nu Skin’s second quarter performance, please click here and here.

TUPPERWARE

Tupperware’s second quarter sales performance was far from being satisfactory: $475 million (-11% as compared to last year same quarter). All regions reported negative figures, Asia-Pacific and South America leading them (each with -14%).  Tupperware’s global sales force decreased to 565 million, representing a 9% decline.

“Overall, the business fell short of our expectations in some markets as geopolitical concerns and lower consumer spending headwinds in two of our key markets resulted in a miss of our local currency sales expectations,” said Tricia Stitzel, Chairman and CEO of Tupperware.

Tupperware expects an annual sales decline of between 9-11% in 2019. Tupperware’s sales had decreased by 8% in 2018. In fact, the company reported positive growth only in one year (2017) during the past five years. Tricia Stitzel commented on the future,  “This is the three-year endeavor that may be bumpy at times, we’re tasked with turning a large ship and bringing along a family of over 3 million individual sellers with us.”

For more on Tupperware’s second quarter performance, please click here and here.



USANA

USANA reported quite disappointing results for the second quarter: Global sales was down 15% versus last year (USD 256 m vs. USD302 m). During the first quarter, USANA had come up with negative growth as well (-6.5%).  Consequently, company’s mid-year growth is 10% behind last year.

The worst figure came from USANA’s largest business region of the four, China. Sales in China was down 23% and accounted for about 70% of the total decline in USANA’s sales. Americas & Europe (-15.9%) and Southeast Asia Pacific (-1.5%) also reported declining sales. The only positive situation was in North Asia (+19%), company’s smallest business unit.

Commenting on the results, CEO Kevin Guest said, “The continuing challenging market environment in China was the major factor that impacted our second quarter results. During the second quarter, we offered promotions and incentives in China that have historically generated meaningful sales and customer growth. However, the contribution of these promotions was significantly lower than we anticipated, which we believe is due to the low consumer sentiment toward health products in China.”

USANA management announced the net sales outlook for 2019 as “between $1.02 billion and $1.06 billion”. This is significantly lower than their expectation after the first quarter (was between $1.21 billion and $1.26 billion). If this revised projection happens, USANA will be reporting an annual sales decline for the first time after several years of substantial sales increases.

For more on USANA’s second quarter performance, please click here and here.

Generally speaking, the picture was not bright at all as a whole for these giants in the first half. Let’s see how their performances will evolve during the second half.

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Hakki Ozmorali is the Principal of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting firm in Canada specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is also the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.

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The post Direct Selling Giants’ Growth Performances, Mid-2019 appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

The review focuses on the largest seven publicly-owned direct sellers: Avon, Herbalife, Natura, Nu Skin, Oriflame, Tupperware and USANA.

AVON

Avon’s total revenue in the last quarter of 2018 was $1.402 billion, representing a 11% decrease from 2017 last quarter ($1.569 billion). Annual result was down 3% from 2017, adding another year of negative growth to Avon’s history. None of Avon’s regions was able to report sales increase in the last quarter.The worst result was from South Latin America with 15% quarterly sales decrease.

Active representatives also declined 6% in Q4, with decreases in South Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific.

In 2018, 69% of Avon’s sales was generated by its beauty line, 14% by fashion products and 11% by its “home” category.

CEO Jan Zijderveld said, “As I wrap up my first year at Avon, we have a clear strategy to Open Up Avon and are taking the necessary steps to return this company to growth. We understand that the foundation of our success lies in the training and retention of our Representatives. Empowering women to build successful businesses and generate relevant earnings in countries around the world will, in turn, enable us to grow. This is a large task that involves the efforts of every employee and Representative.”

In late January this year, Avon announced 10% reduction in its global workforce, 15% in inventory reduction and 25% decrease in Stock Keeping Units (SKUs).

For more on Avon’s Q4 2018 results, please click here and here.



HERBALIFE

Herbalife ended last year $100 million short of being a $5B-company. Herbalife’s 2018 revenue of $4.892 billion meant 10% growth versus 2017.

Final quarter performance was $1.187 billion sales, up 8.5% from Q4  of 2017. Highest growth was achieved in Asia-Pacific (+22%). North America region reported 11.7%, China 11.1%, Mexico 6.0%, and EMEA 5.7% growth. The smallest region in size, South & Central America reported decreased sales (-18.5%). Management said year-over-year increases were achieved in 8 of company’s top 10 markets. Herbalife’s regional sales figure for the full year of 2018 are shown on the right:

“In 2018, we continued to show the strength of our business in providing premier nutrition products to distributors and consumers around the world. We achieved double digit net sales growth and record volume points, enhancing our value for shareholders,” said Michael O. Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Herbalife.

In early January this year, Herbalife’s CEO Rich Goudis had abruptly resigned with immediate effect, resulting in previous CEO Michael O. Johnson taking over.

Company announced its sales growth target for 2019 as “between 4% to 8%”.

For more on Herbalife’s Q4 2018 results, please click here and here.

NATURA

Brazil’s cosmetics giant reported 16% revenue increase in Q4. Natura’s 2018 full year sales growth was 36% over previous year. Without the positive base effect of The Body Shop’s acquisition in 2017, the annual growth was still a remarkable 13.5%, reaching Brazilian Real 13,397 billion (approx. USD 3.6 billion).

Management announced Q4 2018 was the strongest quarter in Natura’s history.

Natura group’s consolidated business consists of three divisions: Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop. Natura division reported 10% growth in 2018, The Body Shop 18% (with base-effect adjustment), and Aesop 51%.

Currently, Natura division accounts for 63% of the group’s consolidated global sales. 29% is generated by The Body Shop, and 8% by Aesop.

For more on Natura’s Q4 2018 results, please click here.

NU SKIN

With the 3% revenue increase in the fourth quarter, Nu Skin ended the year with 18% sales growth as compared to 2017 ($2.679 b vs. $2.279 b).

The highest quarterly growth came from South Asia (+9%). That was followed by EMEA (+6%), and Hong Kong/Taiwan (+2%). Nu Skin’s largest region Mainland China’s sales decreased by 2%. China alone accounts for about 1/3 of company’s global sales.

“We grew our revenue 18% percent for the year, with growth coming from virtually all of our segments. We were also encouraged that our customer acquisition strategy resulted in 16% growth in our customer base,” said Ritch Wood, CEO of Nu Skin.

For 2019, Nu Skin announces it expects $2.76 billion to $2.82 billion annual sales, that is 3 to 5% growth.

For more on Nu Skin’s Q4 2018 results, please click here and here.



ORIFLAME

Oriflame’s sales in the last quarter of 2018 was €370.3m, down 3% from previous year. Company’s full year sales growth performance for the whole year was also -3%. Its field force on the hand, increased by 1% in 2018, thanks mostly to the performances in CIS  (+12%) and Latin America (+9%).

In Q4, revenue in Europe & Africa grew by 7%, Latin America by 5%, decreased in CIS region by 2%. The worst quarterly performance came from Oriflame’s Asia & Turkey region: -13%. Asia & Turkey is company’s largest region with its close to 40% share.

Oriflame’s revenue generating product categories’ shares in total revenue are as below. Wellness products’ performance was remarkable in 2018 (increased to 13% from 11%):

CEO Magnus Brannstrom said on the results, “2018 has been a year of mixed performance for Oriflame. While the slower development in Asia & Turkey during the fourth quarter was disappointing, the improved sales momentum in most other regions demonstrates the strength of our balanced geographical footprint.“

For more on Oriflame’s Q4 2018 results, please click here.

TUPPERWARE

Tupperware’s fourth quarter growth was quite a disappointment for its investors: $506 million in revenue which was down 14% from same period of 2017. With this last quarter performance, Tupperware closed the year with 8% less sales versus 2017 ($2.070 billion vs $2.256 billion)

All regions made a contribution to Tupperware’s disappointing fourth quarter performance: South America (-22%), Asia-Pacific (-16%), Europe (-12%), and North America (-7%).

Tricia Stitzel, President and CEO of Tupperware, commented, “Our sales and segment profit results in the fourth quarter were not what we expected, leading to our desire to accelerate the business transformation to capitalize on our Global Growth Strategy. We continue to operate with a sense of urgency and remain confident that, over time, our initiatives will ensure our major units deliver consistent sales and profit growth and create enhanced value for our shareholders.”

Management declares its “strategic road map” includes five components as the table to the right shows. Yet Tupperware management is not too optimistic for this year as it announced it had targeted an additional revenue decline of 2 to 4% in 2019.

For more on Tupperware’s Q4 2018 results, please click here and here.

USANA

USANA came up with impressive sales growth both in the fourth quarter and in 2018 as a whole: Fourth quarter revenue was $299 million (an increase of 9.5% year-over-year), and 2018 full year revenue was $1.189 billion (an increase of 14% from 2017). USANA has been generating over $1 billion annually for the last three years now. 2018 also marked the 16th consecutive year that the company has delivered record sales.

In the last quarter of 2018, USANA generated 81% of its sales from Asia-Pacific region. Americas and Europe accounted for the rest (19%). China is USANA’s largest market with its 56% share in revenue.

“USANA finished the year with another quarter of solid results, bolstered by our annual China National Sales Meeting in Macau and a few targeted product promotions in select markets,” said Kevin Guest, Chief Executive Officer.

For 2019, USANA expects net sales between $1.25 billion and $1.30 billion, representing a growth of between 5.1% and 9.3%.

For more on USANA’s Q4 2018 results, please click here and here.

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Hakki Ozmorali is the Principal of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting firm in Canada specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a proud Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is also the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.

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The post The 7 Giants’ 2018 Growth Review appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

Beginnings

Tupperware’s founder Earl Tupper was born in 1907 into a modest farming community in New Hampshire. After studying at the university, he began a landscaping and nursery business that he named “Tupper Tree Doctors Company”. This went on until his bankruptcy in 1936.

“Tupperware” branded products were introduced in 1946 and were quite innovative in those days. With these airtight containers, food was to be preserved for longer periods. Contrary to general belief, Earl Tupper’s products first appeared in retail outlets. Despite their breakthrough nature, people did not show much interest to these containers mainly because they needed demonstrations to understand how they worked. But Earl Tupper did not know this until he met a lady named Brownie Wise.

Brownie Wise and Party Selling

After the Second World War, Brownie Wise was selling Stanley Home Products at home party demonstrations to earn some additional income. Stanley Home Products was a direct selling company founded by Frank Stanley Beveridge in 1931. In a short while, she also began promoting Tupperware products at her home parties.

Around 1948, Brownie Wise’s extraordinary success in selling Tupperware products through home parties caught Earl Tupper’s attention. He asked Brownie to design Tupperware’s marketing strategy based on her experiences. Tupperware was withdrawn from retail stores in the early 1950s. Brownie Wise then, became the Vice President of the company and ran company’s sales division, “Tupperware Home Parties”. She was also the face of Tupperware, representing the brand on television, and newspaper and magazine articles.

Brownie Wise was fired by Earl Tupper in 1958. It was said that differences about how to run the company and in management styles were the causes of this abrupt end. Soon after that, every reference to Wise was removed from the company literature. It was as if she had never existed.

Post-Wise Era

The same year Brownie Wise was fired, Earl Tupper sold his company to the Rexall Drug Company for $16 million, divorced his wife, gave up his U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes and bought himself an island in Central America. In 1983, Earl Tupper died in Costa Rica at the age of 76.

After a decade of success in the U.S, Tupperware expanded into Europe. The first British Tupperware party was held in October 1960. In 1963, the company was present in six European countries. Then came launches in Japan and Australia.

Rexall renamed itself Dart Industries in 1977. Dart merged with Kraftco to form Dart & Kraft. The company demerged, with the former Dart assets named Premark International. Tupperware was spun off from Premark in 1996 to become a publicly held company.

Relations with the Direct Selling Community

Tupperware, for a long time has been putting a distance between itself and those direct sellers that employ a network marketing model.

Former CEO Rick Goings once said, “Direct selling left us, because the industry became dominated by buying clubs that looked like pyramid schemes.”  He also said in another occasion, “We think MLM is not a sustainable way to do a direct selling business when all you basically are a wholesale buying club. So, no interest at all in going that direction.”

As a result of this strategy, Tupperware is not a member of the Direct Selling Associations in many countries including the U.S. In some other markets though, Tupperware shows itself with “those companies” in the DSAs. You can read the white paper Tupperware had put together to explain how it differentiated itself from the “others” here.

In Europe, threre are two “umbrella” associations: One being Seldia and the other Direct Selling Europe. Tupperware is a member of the second one along with AMC, Avon, Jafra and Vorwerk.

Tupperware’s Last 10 Years

The company “Tupperware Brands” today actually consists of five different brands: Tupperware, Avroy Shlain, Fuller Cosmetics, NaturCare, Nutrimetics and Nuvo.

Within the last 10 years, Tupperware’s consolidated worldwide sales increased from US$1.981 b (2007) to US$2.256 b (2017). This represents a modest 14% growth. Tupperware’s sales exceeded US$2.5 b four times (in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) but the company has not been able to repeat this since then. Not only this, following the peak in 2013, Tupperware’s revenue declined for three consecutive years until 2017.

Operationally, Tupperware has been a profitable business, generating more than 10% operating profit each and every year. However, the failure in increasing the sales has put restraint on profits in $ terms. The unique net loss that occurred in 2017 was due mainly to “provision for income taxes”, non-cash, income tax charges related to the enactment of the new U.S. tax laws.

At the end of 2017, management was optimistically saying it had expected to achieve 2 to 4% sales growth in 2018, globally. Yet, this positive outlook was then rolled back and the updated official 2018 outlook was announced as  -7% to -6%.

In February 2018, Tupperware announced Rick Goings would step down from the CEO role to be replaced by Tricia Stitzel as the first female CEO in its history. Rick Goings has been with Tupperware since 1992, and has been the Chairman and CEO in the last 11 years. Stitzel has been with the company since 1997 and most recently she has been its President and COO. This appointment was followed by some other top-level appointments: Asha Gupta to Executive VP and Chief Strategy and Marketing  Officer, Stein Ove Fenne to Group President of EMEA, Jim Bellonz to President of U.S. & Canada, and Justin Hewett to Group President of Asia Pacific.

After the second quarter results of 2018, CEO Stitzel was saying, “We do acknowledge that we must perform better across the global portfolio. I am confident that with this dynamic team of experienced leaders and the 3 million entrepreneurs in our sales force, we will be able to innovate and execute to solidify our position as a thriving global brand.“

She also added, “We are on a mission to grow our community of seller by 1 million and to get there we’re going to need to add 30,000 more sales force managers globally, and this will ultimately bring the sales that will take us to the next level.“

What we can see from the current picture is a company that has not been growing. Consequently, the investors’ sentiment has not been positive, either. Tupperware’s value on the New York Stock Exchange has come down from US$95 in late 2013 to US$33 most recently. This also means that the market value of Tupperware has been cut down by 2/3 in the same period.

It seems there is a lot on CEO Tricia Stitzel’s and her colleagues’ plates to turn the company around.

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Hakki Ozmorali is the Principal of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting firm in Canada specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a proud Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is also the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.

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