PETALING JAYA — Bursa Malaysia Main Market-listed Amway (Malaysia) Holdings Bhd (Amway) suffered from lower sales and higher import costs in the third quarter of the financial year 2017 (3QFY17), primarily attributed to the weaker ringgit.
As a result, it saw its revenue dip 6.9% to RM243.65 million in the 3QFY17 from RM261.69 million in the corresponding quarter.
“The general decline in the group’s revenue for the first nine months was due to strong buy up in 2016 ahead of the price increases effective February and April 2016.
“The sales in 2016 was also driven by positive momentum among Amway business owners (ABOs) and higher qualifiers in response to the 40th anniversary sales and marketing programmes,” said Amway executive director Mike Duong.
Prospects for financial year 2017
“For the remaining period, we expect slight improvement in our performance compared to the prior nine months, in line with the positive ABO momentum following the start of a new ABO performance year.
“Nevertheless, foreign exchange impact continues to exert pressure on our margins,” Duong said.
Comparison with 2QFY17
In comparison to the 2QFY17, the Group’s revenue saw a minor decline of 3.3% to RM243.65 million from RM252.06 million due to positive response towards sales and marketing programmes in the preceding quarter.
Profit before tax of RM19.44 million decreased by 2.4% compared to the preceding quarter’s RM19.92 million.
This was again mainly due to lower sales and higher operating expenses in the period under review, partially offset by lower provision for ABO sales incentives.
Managing Director of Amway, Martin Liou said: “We will continue to proactively focus on strategies to effectively manage operating costs to offset pressure on profitability and implement various sales and marketing initiatives, as well as ABO experience-related infrastructure to support the ABOs’ businesses”.
Amway Malaysia declared a third interim single-tier dividend of 5.0 sen net per share.
The Group’s profit before tax for the three months ended September 30 was at RM19.44 million, a decrease of 17.7% as compared to the same period last year with RM23.61 million.
For the nine months, the Group revenue was RM732.86 million, or 12.4% lower than the same period last year revenue of RM836.50 million.
The Group’s profit before tax for the nine months also saw a decline, recorded at RM52.67 million with a decrease of 9.8% from RM58.42 million.