Avon 2009 Annual Report Download - page 19

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT FOR PURPOSES OF THE “SAFE HARBOR”
STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM
ACT OF 1995
Statements in this report that are not historical facts or informa-
tion are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as
“estimate,” “project,” “forecast,” “plan,” “believe,” “may,”
“expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,”“planned,” “potential,” “can,”
“expectation” and similar expressions, or the negative of those
expressions, may identify forward-looking statements. Such
forward-looking statements are based on management’s reason-
able current assumptions and expectations. Such forward-looking
statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which
may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or
achievement of Avon to be materially different from any future
results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements,
and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ
materially from management’s expectations. Such factors include,
among others, the following:
•our ability to implement the key initiatives of, and realize the
gross and operating margins and projected benefits (inthe
amounts and time schedulesweexpect) from, our global
business strategy, including our multi-year restructuring
initiatives, product mixand pricing strategies, enterprise
resource planning, customer service initiatives, product line
simplification program, sales and operation planning process,
strategic sourcing initiative, outsourcing strategies, zero-overhead-
growth philosophy, Internet platform and technology strategies,
cash flow from operations and cash management, tax,
foreign currency hedging and risk management strategies;
•our ability to realize the anticipated benefits (including any
projections concerning future revenue and operating margin
increases) from our multi-year restructuring initiatives or other
strategic initiatives on the time schedules or in the amounts
that we expect, and our plans to invest these anticipated
benefits ahead of future growth;
•the possibility of business disruption in connection with our
multi-year restructuring initiatives or other strategic initiatives;
•our ability to realize sustainable growth from our investments
in our brand and the direct-selling channel;
•ageneral economic downturn, arecession globally or in one
or more of our geographic regions, such as North America, or
sudden disruption in business conditions, and the ability of our
broad-based geographic portfolio to withstand such economic
downturn, recession or conditions;
•the effect of political, legal, tax and regulatory risks imposed
on us, our operations or our Representatives, including foreign
exchange or other restrictions, interpretation and enforcement
of foreign laws including any changes thereto, as well as
reviews and investigations by government regulators that have
occurred or may occur from time to time, including, for exam-
ple, local regulatory scrutiny in China;
•the inventory obsolescence and other costs associated with
our product line simplification program;
•our ability to effectively implement initiatives to reduce inven-
tory levels in the time period and in the amounts we expect;
•our ability to achieve growth objectives or maintain rates of
growth, particularly in our largest markets and developing and
emerging markets, such as Brazil;
•our ability to successfully identify new business opportunities
and identify and analyze acquisition candidates, and our
ability to negotiate and consummate acquisitions as well as to
successfully integrate or manage any acquired business;
•the effect of economic factors, including inflation and fluctua-
tions in interest rates and currency exchange rates, as well as
the designation of Venezuela as ahighly inflationary economy,
and thepotential effect of such factors on our business, results
of operations and financial condition;
•our ability to successfully transition and evolve our business in
China in connection with the development and evolution of
the direct-selling business in that market, our ability to operate
using adirect-selling model permitted in that market and our
ability to retain and increase the number of Active Representa-
tives there over asustained period of time;
•general economic and business conditions in our markets,
including social, economic and political uncertainties in the
international markets in our portfolio;
•any consequences of internal investigations and compliance
reviews that we conduct, including the ongoing investigation
and compliance reviews of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and
related U.S. and foreign law matters in China and additional
countries, as well as any business disruption resulting from
such investigations, reviews or related actions;
•information technology systems outages, disruption in our
supply chain or manufacturing and distribution operations,
or other sudden disruption in business operations beyond
our control as aresult of events such as acts of terrorism or
war, natural disasters, pandemic situations and large scale
power outages;
•the risk of product or ingredient shortages resulting from our
concentration of sourcing in fewer suppliers;
•the quality, safety and efficacy of our products;
•the success of our research and development activities;
•our ability to attract and retain key personnel and executives;
•competitive uncertainties in our markets, including competi-
tion from companies in the cosmetics, fragrances, skin care
and toiletries industry, some of which are larger than we are
and have greater resources;
•our ability to implement our Sales Leadership program glob-
ally, to generate Representativeactivity, to increase the
number of consumers served per Representative and their
engagement online, to enhance the Representative and con-
sumer experience and increase Representative productivity
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