Convention, Domestic Sales Boost USANA Sales

SALT LAKE CITY—New products launched at the USANA Health Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:USNA) annual convention helped drive strong domestic sales in all but one of its 12 international markets, resulting in a 20-percent growth in third quarter net sales to $82.2 million. On the strength of top line growth, net earnings also rose 25.6 percent to $10.0 million or $0.51 per share, from $8.0 million or $0.39 per share earned a year ago.

“Buoyed by the success of the convention, U.S. sales, which represented nearly 43 percent of total sales, grew 22 percent compared with last year,” said Dave Wentz, president. “In addition, our year-over-year sales grew in all but one of our markets, and we achieved double-digit growth in many of our markets. Mexico remained a strong performer during the quarter, with sales growth of 52 percent, compared with last year.”

Gilbert A. Fuller, chief financial officer (CFO), noted, “Although our third quarter is customarily our weakest quarter, our sales increased slightly on a sequential basis and net earnings grew by 5 percent.” Looking ahead, he added the company (www.usana.com) expects fourth quarter sales to reach $86 million to $88 million, and anticipates fiscal 2006 growth to be between 15 percent and 20 percent for both sales and earnings.