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 Nonetheless, strong demand for newer music and video accessories
helped profits to come in higher than all analyst forecasts.
Logitech has refocused on new lines like wireless music speakers,
videoconferencing and video game controllers, offsetting a decline
in personal computers and demand for its mice and keyboards it has
made since the dawn of the PC age.
Towards that end, Logitech said it will exit a low-margin business
that mainly makes computer mice for PC makers to sell as their own.
Sales there fell 26 percent in the latest quarter.
It reported operating profit of $14.5 million for the quarter ended
March 31, compared to $21.8 million a year ago, due to pockets of
sales strength, lower costs and fewer restructuring charges. Net
sales in the March quarter fell 4.7 percent to $467.2 million, at
the high of estimates.
Logitech has at best managed slow sales growth for six of the past
seven years. However, underlying demand for new products and action
to cut costs and raise prices are positioning it for sustained
growth in coming years, it said.
Shares of the Lausanne-based company traded up 2.2 percent at midday
on the Zurich stock exchange, following the report.
PRICE HIKES PLANNED
Once Logitech exits the declining computer mouse manufacturing
business, underlying sales results from are set to show sustained
sales growth in constant currency terms, Chief Executive Bracken
Darrell said in an interview.
"This (retail business) is going to be the bulk of our business
going forward," Darrell said. "What we are announcing today is the
simplifying of our story."
Excluding currency swings, sales nudged up 1 percent. Logitech's
retail business, which generates 90 percent of sales, grew 7 percent
in constant currency. Importantly, newer growth categories on which
it is betting its future business, grew 45 percent and now make up
nearly one-third of its retail business.
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Darrell, who has moved Logitech into new product lines while cutting
costs in older product areas, said Logitech was prepared to increase
prices to offset currency declines.
"We are raising prices around the world," Darrell told Reuters,
referring to markets outside the United States. The price increases
will take effect in this quarter," he said.
The CEO said he believes the company commands pricing power in many
of its accessory lines including what is now its best-selling
product line -- wireless Bluetooth speakers. It plans to raise
prices around 11 to 13 percent in Europe, for example.
More than half of Logitech's costs and expenses are in U.S. dollars
and roughly 10 percent are in Swiss francs while it relies on
suppliers in Asia, where currencies have been stable, to source most
of its hardware.
(This story amends headline to read "moves away from computer mouse"
instead of "kills off computer mouse")
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru;
Editing by Keith Weir)
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