Newell Brands announce 2023 results

Newell Brands announces its fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results.

Highlights include:

• Fourth quarter net sales were $2.1 billion, a decline of 9.1 percent compared with the prior year period. Core sales declined 9.3 percent compared with the prior year period.
• Fourth quarter reported gross margin increased to 29.9 percent compared with 26.3 percent in the prior year period.
• Fourth quarter reported operating margin was negative 0.5 percent compared with negative 11.9 percent in the prior year period, as both periods included the impact of non-cash impairment charges. Normalized operating margin increased to 7.7 percent compared with 4.9 percent in the prior year period.
• Full year operating cash flow increased by $1.2 billion to $930 million compared with outflow of $272 million in the prior year.
• The company reduced debt to $4.9 billion at the end of 2023 compared with $5.4 billion at the end of 2022.

Mark Erceg, Newell Brands Chief Financial Officer, said, “We dramatically improved the underlying structural economics of the business during the fourth quarter, as both gross margin and operating margin expanded significantly versus last year. In addition, full year operating cash flow was very strong, increasing by $1.2 billion to $930 million, which allowed us to reduce debt by about $500 million. We remain confident that despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop, the significant investments we are making to augment our core capabilities and accelerate our business transformation will allow us to fully operationalize our new corporate strategy and strengthen the company’s performance going forward.”