Energizer 2002 Annual Report Download - page 4

FY 2002 Financial Results
For our fiscal year ended September 30, 2002,
net earnings, excluding unusual items, reached
$192 million, an increase of 88 percent over net
earnings of $102 million the prior year. Earnings
per share, excluding unusual items, rose 90 percent
to $2.07 from $1.09 the year before. Reflecting these
solid advances, our share price climbed from
$16.62 at the end of fiscal 2001 to $30.40 on
September 30, 2002.
In May 2002, we completed our previously author-
ized repurchase of 5 million shares, and our Board of
Directors authorized the repurchase of an additional
5 million shares of common stock. We intend to
make occasional repurchases on the open market
or through privately arranged transactions, subject
to corporate objectives and management’s discretion.
In August 2002, we conducted a modified “Dutch
auction”tender offer and were able to purchase a
total of 2.6 million shares at a price of $29.00 per
share. In fiscal 2002, we repurchased a total of 3.8
million shares representing nearly 4 percent of the
shares outstanding.
Progress in Our Key Initiatives
Fiscal 2002 was a year of solid performance. We
attained targeted profitability while protecting our
relatively strong market share position throughout the
world. Some markets were up, some were down and
some were sideways, but for the most part, we’re
very pleased with our competitive position.
In our pursuit of improved results, we followed the
four initiatives detailed here last year to address
the business climate and adapt to the new realities
of the marketplace. We have achieved significant
progress in each area:
1. Managing our business to maximize cash
returns. Net cash flow, as defined by EBITDA
before unusual items, increased 37 percent from
$275 million to $376 million. This improvement
reflects our improved operating performance and
our focus on managing working capital. Over the
last two years, we’ve been able to reduce working
capital by 12 percent, primarily by reducing our
inventory levels by focusing on manufacturing
to consumption levels.
2. Streamlining our global operations to reduce
costs and rationalize capacity. Based on a
comprehensive review of Energizer’s worldwide
operations and capacity utilization completed in
late fiscal 2001, we implemented restructuring
plans to consolidate carbon zinc production
capacity. We closed our facility in Mexico and
now supply Latin American markets from our
Asian production complex, where we achieve lower
production costs and improved product quality.
to our shareholders
Throughout fiscal 2002, we focused squarely on the actions needed to be
successful and eliminated those activities that were not value producing.
The outcome of these efforts is clearly reflected in our strong financial
results. While Energizer’s 2001 fiscal year was very disappointing, we
used it as a stepping stone to regear the company, drive for improved
performance and return to an appropriate trend line in 2002.
ENR 2002 Annual Report Page 2