St. Ives Labs’ Profit Up 42% in 3rd Quarter

St. Ives Laboratories Inc., recovering from a marketing goof, said its third-quarter profit jumped 42% from a year earlier on a 9% increase in sales.

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, St. Ives’ net income rose to $835,731 from $590,532 a year earlier, and its sales rose to $27.5 million from $25.3 million.

Based in Chatsworth, St. Ives makes shampoos and other personal-care products. In late-1989 and early this year, its earnings had slumped largely because the company had put its hair-care products in new packages that bombed with consumers. St. Ives has since gone back to its previous packaging and its profit rebounded in the latest quarter.

For the first nine months of 1990, however, St. Ives’ profit was still down 33% from a year earlier, to $2.47 million from $3.71 million. Its nine-month sales fell 6% to $78.6 million from $83.5 million.