Tag Archives: Central Garden Pet

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Adams™ Smart Shield® Wins Silver in Reggie Award Competition for Best New Product Launch

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Adams™ Smart Shield® Wins Silver in Reggie Award Competition for Best New Product Launch

Adams™ Flea and Tick Control Delivery Device Provides Smarter Solution for Flea and Tick Control

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) announced last week that Central Garden & Pet’s introduction of the Adams Smart Shield Applicator won the Silver Award of the Best New Product Launch category in the 30th Annual Reggie Awards. Started in 1983, the Reggie Awards are named after the “cash register” and salute best-in-class marketing campaigns in the field of promotions.

“The flea and tick control section of pet stores and retailers needed a boost from true product innovation. The new Adams Smart Shield Applicator gave us a great platform to differentiate the Adams brand and stand out on the shelf,” said Steve LeVeau, Director of Marketing for Animal Health. “Our ‘Smarter Pet Care’ communication strategy, driven by TV, print, in-store and digital media, drove outstanding dollar sales growth.”

The Adams™ Smart Shield® Applicator is a breakthrough topical flea and tick control delivery device designed to work with Adams™ Spot On® products. The patent-pending design is easy to grip, helps part fur for direct application to the pet’s skin (where the bugs live) and effectively keeps liquid off hands, empowering pet owners with the confidence to apply treatment by themselves.

Adams™ flea and tick control products are available at retailers nationwide including Walmart, PetSmart, Petco, Kroger, Lowes, Publix, Amazon.com, and your local pet store. Consumers can use the convenient online store locator at www.adamspetcare.com to find the store carrying Adams™ products closest to their home.

About Adams™

Adams™ products take a smarter approach to pet care and makes protecting your family, pet, home, and yard easier and more effective. The Adams™ line of products, which has been sold by veterinarians for more than 30 years, includes topical products, shampoos, collars and sprays for your home, yard, dogs, puppies, cats and kittens and is available almost everywhere pet products are sold. For a complete product list and more information, visit www.adamspetcare.com/.

About Central Garden & Pet

Central Garden & Pet Company (NAS: CENT) (NAS: CENTA) is a leading innovator, marketer and producer of quality branded products for the lawn & garden and pet supplies markets. Committed to new product innovation, our products are sold to specialty independent and mass retailers. Participating categories in Lawn & Garden include: Grass seed and the brands PENNINGTON®, SMART SEED® and …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Here's 1 Reason Central Garden & Pet Looks Weak

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By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

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Margins matter. The more Central Garden & Pet (NAS: CENT) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That’s why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I’m looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Central Garden & Pet’s competitive position could be.

Here’s the current margin snapshot for Central Garden & Pet over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 30.2%, while operating margin is 4.3% and net margin is 1.1%.

Unfortunately, a look at the most recent numbers doesn’t tell us much about where Central Garden & Pet has been, or where it’s going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can’t make up for this problem by cutting costs — and most companies can’t — then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.

Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company’s profitability. That’s why I like to look at five fiscal years’ worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can’t always reach a hard conclusion about your company’s health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.

Here’s the margin picture for Central Garden & Pet over the past few years.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right — the TTM figures — aren’t always comparable to the FY results preceding them. To compare quarterly margins to their prior-year levels, consult this chart.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Here’s how the stats break down:

  • Over the past five years, gross margin peaked at 33.8% and averaged 31.5%. Operating margin peaked at 7.9% and averaged 6.3%. Net margin peaked at 4.1% and averaged -1.1%.
  • TTM gross margin is 30.2%, 130 basis points worse than the …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Central Garden & Pet Company is Named Walmart Outdoor Living Supplier of the Year

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Central Garden & Pet Company is Named Walmart Outdoor Living Supplier of the Year

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Central Garden & Pet Company (NAS: CENT) (NAS: CENTA) , a leading innovator, marketer and producer of quality branded products for the lawn and garden and pet supplies markets, today announced it was named as Walmart’s Outdoor Living Supplier of the Year. In addition, Central won the People Award for Walmart’s Home Division. Walmart annually recognizes its top suppliers that demonstrate superior customer service.

“Winning not just one but two awards from Walmart is a tremendous honor considering the standard of excellence that Walmart instills in every aspect of its business,” said John Ranelli, President and Chief Executive Officer of Central Garden & Pet. “Achievements like these represent a collective, company-wide effort to understand our consumer and work in concert with Walmart as partners to drive meaningful value for the consumer. These are core principles we live every day at Central. I thank Walmart and our dedicated employees for this great honor. We will continue to build on our long history of collaboration with Walmart to beautify the outdoors and enrich peoples’ lives.”

About Central Garden & Pet

Central Garden & Pet Company is a leading innovator, marketer and producer of quality branded products for the lawn & garden and pet supplies markets. Committed to new product innovation, our products are sold to specialty independent and mass retailers. Participating categories in Lawn & Garden include: Grass seed and the brands PENNINGTON®, SMART SEED® and THE REBELS®; wild bird feed and the brand PENNINGTON®; weed and insect control and the brands AMDRO®, SEVIN®, IRONITE® and OVER-N-OUT®; and decorative outdoor patio products and the brands NORCAL POTTERY®, NEW ENGLAND POTTERY® and MATTHEWS FOUR SEASONS™. We also provide a host of other regional and application-specific garden brands and supplies. Participating categories in Pet include: Animal health and the brands ADAMS™ and ZODIAC®; aquatics and reptile and the brands OCEANIC SYSTEMS®, AQUEON® and ZILLA®; bird & small animal and the brands KAYTEE®, SUPER PET® and CRITTER TRAIL®; dog & cat and the brands TFH™, NYLABONE®, FOUR PAWS®, PINNACLE® and AVODERM®; and equine and the brands FARNAM®, VITA FLEX® and HORSE HEALTHTM PRODUCTS. We also provide a host of other application-specific pet brands and supplies. Central Garden & Pet Company is based in Walnut Creek, California, and has approximately 3,600 employees, primarily in North America. For additional information on Central Garden …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Central Garden & Pet Going to Burn You?

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By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

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There’s no foolproof way to know the future for Central Garden & Pet (NAS: CENT) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen — and before your stock craters as a result.

A cloudy crystal ball
 In this series, we use accounts receivable and days sales outstanding to judge a company’s current health and future prospects. It’s an important step in separating the pretenders from the market’s best stocks. Alone, AR — the amount of money owed the company — and DSO — the number of days’ worth of sales owed to the company — don’t tell you much. However, by considering the trends in AR and DSO, you can sometimes get a window onto the future.

Sometimes, problems with AR or DSO simply indicate a change in the business (like an acquisition), or lax collections. However, AR that grows more quickly than revenue, or ballooning DSO, can, at times, suggest a desperate company that’s trying to boost sales by giving its customers overly generous payment terms. Alternately, it can indicate that the company sprinted to book a load of sales at the end of the quarter, like used-car dealers on the 29th of the month. (Sometimes, companies do both.)

Why might an upstanding firm like Central Garden & Pet do this? For the same reason any other company might: to make the numbers. Investors don’t like revenue shortfalls, and employees don’t like reporting them to their superiors.

Is Central Garden & Pet sending any potential warning signs? Take a look at the chart below, which plots revenue growth against AR growth, and DSO:

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. FQ = fiscal quarter.

The standard way to calculate DSO uses average accounts receivable. I prefer to look at end-of-quarter receivables, but I’ve plotted both above.

Watching the trends
 When that red line (AR growth) crosses above the green line (revenue growth), I know I need to consult the filings. Similarly, a spike in the blue bars indicates a trend worth worrying about. Central Garden & Pet’s latest average DSO stands at 54.9 days, and the end-of-quarter figure is 46.9 days. Differences in business models can generate variations in DSO, and business needs can require occasional fluctuations, but all things being equal, I like to see this figure stay steady. So, let’s get back to our original question: Based on DSO and sales, does Central Garden & Pet look like it might miss its numbers in the next quarter or two?

The numbers don’t paint a clear picture. For the last …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance