El Paso consumer products company Helen of Troy lost millions of dollars in a difficult 2025 that company officials nonetheless framed in mostly rosy terms.
Company officials also announced April 23, when Helen of Troy’s latest annual financial report was released, that the company’s massive warehouse/distribution facility near Memphis, Tennessee, was sold for $82 million, helping to reduce its huge debt.
Scott Uzzell, company chief executive officer for eight months, told Wall Street analysts during an April 23 earnings call that fiscal year 2026, ending Feb. 28, was “dynamic” because it positioned the company for a brighter future. He said the company beat its expectations for net sales, earnings per share, and cash flow.
Not much was said about it losing $899 million – its first annual loss in 17 years. It had a profit of $123.7 million in fiscal year 2025.
The last time Helen of Troy recorded an annual loss was in FY 2009, when it lost $56.8 million.
The big loss is mostly on paper because it’s tied to an accounting mechanism that devalued the company’s goodwill – essentially its business reputation, by $886 million. That was triggered by a sustained decline in the company’s stock price in each quarter of FY 2026. The loss was recorded as an asset impairment charge.
It’s stock price on the Nasdaq stock exchange went from $53.66 per share March 3, 2025, at the start of FY 2026, to $17.74 per share Feb. 26, 2026, at the end of the year. The stock was trading at more than $100 per share in 2024. It closed April 30 at $23.15 per share.
A more realistic view of the company’s performance in FY 2026 is its gross profit, before the impairment charge. That was $815.7 million, a decrease of $98.7 million from 2025, or a 10.8% drop.
A big chunk of that decrease was due to millions of dollars in costs tied to U.S. tariffs against China, where Helen of Troy has many of its products manufactured, Brian Grass, chief financial officer, told analysts. It has been shifting more of its China manufacturing to Southeast Asia.
The company’s sales decreased $121 milllion to just under $1.8 billion in FY 2026, a drop of 6.3%.
Sales were hurt by a decrease in consumer demand, especially for Helen of Troy’s beauty and health products, in a “volatile market,” Uzzell told analysts.
“We see sales trends improving as we launch new products that offer real solutions,” Uzzell said. “Even in this environment, brands like Vicks, Braun, Oxo, Osprey, Olive & June are standing out as (market) leaders.”
Those national brand names are part of the company’s diverse portfolio of hair care, health care, household and outdoor consumer products. Other well-known brands it sells include Hydro Flask, Honeywell, Hot Tools and Revlon.
More than 30% of its sales in FY 2026 were through Amazon.com and Walmart – its top customers in the last three fiscal years.
More: El Paso Electric by the numbers: 2025 sales up slightly, profit down
The company’s debt declined 16.7% to $756 million. Reducing the debt further continues to be a priority, Uzzell said.
The $78.2 million received for the April 14 sale of its 1.2 million square-foot warehouse/distribution facility in Southaven, Mississippi, a Memphis, Tennessee suburb, went to debt reduction.
The facility sold for $82 million, but $3.8 million was subtracted for sale costs. Helen of Troy had the warehouse built in 2005 at a cost of about $45 million, including equipment and fixtures.
“Reducing the footprint of our distribution center network has been a plan for some time, and we had the opportunity to divest our Southaven (facility) at an advantegous price,” Anne Rakunas, a company spokesperson, said in an email,
The facility was used for the company’s Beauty business (hair dryers, other hair-care products, nail-care products) and that inventory was shifted to its 1.3 million square-foot warehouse in Olive Branch, Mississippi, near Southaven.
The company in September 2023 sold its huge headquarters building and adjoining warehouse in West El Paso for $50.6 million, and moved the headquarters to a Downtown El Paso office building, where a staff reportedly numbering less than 200 people work under a hybrid, in-office/remote, work schedule. It employed 1,854 full-time workers worldwide as of Feb. 28.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on X, and @vkolenc.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Stock nosedive brings Helen of Troy first annual loss in 17 years
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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