Lehi, Utah-based Nature’s Sunshine Products, Inc., a natural health and wellness company engaged in the manufacture and direct selling of nutritional and personal care products, recently reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. Net sales increased 5.1 percent to $87.3 million year-over-year.
“We continued to generate good consolidated year over year growth, driven by Synergy Asia Pacific, NSP Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and a moderated rate of growth in NSP China,” said Chairman and CEO Gregory L. Probert. “We have also seen sales stabilize in NSP Americas over the last few quarters following the disruption from last April’s ERP implementation. Despite growth in NSP China, we did encounter some weakness during the first quarter that may continue over the coming quarters. The challenge relates to maintaining engagement of distributor leadership during these early stages of the Company’s development in China. Given we are still in the first year operating with a direct selling license, our China business is dependent upon the level of activity of a limited number of distributor leaders. While we have recently had success attracting additional leaders, we need to continue broadening the leadership ranks to create more consistency in activity levels and volume from quarter to quarter. We remain confident in our long-term growth opportunity in China despite our expectation for limited or even elusive sequential volume growth in the near-term.”
Net sales of $87.3 million increased 5.1 percent compared to $83.1 million in the first quarter of 2017. On a local currency basis, net sales increased 1.4 percent compared to 2017. Growth was primarily related to continued growth in Synergy Asia Pacific, NSP Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and NSP China, offset by a $2.8 million decline in nets sales in NSP Americas. Net sales were also positively impacted by $3.0 million of favorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.
Total Manager, Distributors and customers, which includes those who have made a purchase in the last twelve months, was approximately 491,000 as of March 31, 2018.
To read the full Nature’s Sunshine Q1 2018 report, click here.
