Armor All Sales Continue to Slide

Hit by retailers’ reluctance to stock up in an uncertain economy, Armor All Products Corp. said Thursday it hopes to, at best, break even for its fiscal fourth quarter. The car-care products company posted a $9.7-million profit in the final period last year.

Armor All has cited weak sales to retailers as the cause of lower earnings in each of the last three quarters.

In Nasdaq trading Thursday, Armor All stock dipped 3.7% to $16.125 per share, down 62.5 cents for the day.

Armor All said its performance for the quarter that ends Sunday also would be dragged down by the continuing costs of correcting a problem with clogged aerosol cans that affects supplies of its Armor All QuickSilver Wheel Cleaner product. The company took a $1-million charge in the fourth quarter last year for the same reason.

The company is removing or replacing retailers’ stocks of the product at its own cost. The company has declined to say how much its fourth-quarter performance was affected by the faulty aerosol sprayers this year.

Analysts said Armor All’s major problem--weak retail sales--is one it shares with its competitors and, indeed, with most consumer goods makers these days.

“Retailers are not getting the sell-through [to consumers], and so they are taking a cautious approach to ordering spring merchandise” from suppliers such as Armor All, said Walter Kirchberger, an industry analyst with Paine Webber Inc. in New York.

Fewer orders from big retailers such as financially struggling Kmart, its second-biggest customer, cut deep into Armor All’s profits.

Mario Cibelli, who watches problem stocks for independent research firm Robotti & Co. in New York, said he agrees that the company is having retailing problems, but is concerned about its operating costs.

“I’m beginning to wonder if too many years of continually increasing sales has resulted in more advertising and management overhead than should be there. This is a really good brand . . . and it should be more profitable.”

Kirchberger said that despite soft fourth-quarter sales, he has not seen any sign that Armor All is losing market share.