Estee Lauder 2008 Annual Report Download - page 76

74 THE EST{E LAUDER COMPANIES INC.
timing or the scope, of advertising, sampling and mer-
chandising programs;
(6) shifts in the preferences of consumers as to where and
how they shop for the types of products and services
we sell;
(7) social, political and economic risks to our foreign or
domestic manufacturing, distribution and retail opera-
tions, including changes in foreign investment and trade
policies and regulations of the host countries and of the
United States;
(8) changes in the laws, regulations and policies (includ-
ing the interpretations and enforcement thereof) that
affect, or will affect, our business, including those relating
to our products, changes in accounting standards, tax
laws and regulations, trade rules and customs regulations,
and the outcome and expense of legal or regulatory pro-
ceedings, and any action we may take as a result;
(9) foreign currency fl uctuations affecting our results of
operations and the value of our foreign assets, the relative
prices at which we and our foreign competitors sell
products in the same markets and our operating and
manufacturing costs outside of the United States;
(10) changes in global or local conditions, including those
due to natural or man-made disasters, real or perceived
epidemics, or energy costs, that could affect consumer
purchasing, the willingness or ability of consumers to
travel and/or purchase our products while traveling, the
fi nancial strength of our customers, suppliers or other
contract counterparties, our operations, the cost and
availability of capital which we may need for new equip-
ment, facilities or acquisitions, the cost and availability of
raw materials and the assumptions underlying our critical
accounting estimates;
(11) shipment delays, depletion of inventory and increased
production costs resulting from disruptions of operations
at any of the facilities that manufacture nearly all of our
supply of a particular type of product (i.e., focus factories)
or at our distribution or inventory centers, including
disruptions that may be caused by the implementation of
SAP as part of our Strategic Modernization Initiative;
(12) real estate rates and availability, which may affect our
ability to increase the number of retail locations at which
we sell our products and the costs associated with our
other facilities;
(13) changes in product mix to products which are less
profi table;
fi scal years beginning after December 15, 2008, and
interim periods within those years. Upon adoption, a
company is required to retrospectively adjust its earnings
per share data (including any amounts related to interim
periods, summaries of earnings and selected fi nancial
data) to conform with the provisions in this FSP. Early
application of this FSP is prohibited. We do not issue
share-based payment awards that contain nonforfeitable
rights to dividends or dividend equivalents.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
We and our representatives from time to time make
written or oral forward-looking statements, including
statements contained in this and other fi lings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, in our press releases
and in our reports to stockholders. The words and phrases
“will likely result,” “expect,” “believe,” “planned,” “may,”
“should,” “could,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,”
“intend,” “forecast” or similar expressions are intended to
identify “forward-looking statements” within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements include, without limitation, our expecta-
tions regarding sales, earnings or other future fi nancial
performance and liquidity, product introductions, entry
into new geographic regions, information systems initia-
tives, new methods of sale and future operations or
operating results. Although we believe that our expecta-
tions are based on reasonable assumptions within the
bounds of our knowledge of our business and operations,
actual results may differ materially from our expectations.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ from
expectations include, without limitation:
(1) increased competitive activity from companies in the
skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care businesses,
some of which have greater resources than we do;
(2) our ability to develop, produce and market new prod-
ucts on which future operating results may depend and to
successfully address challenges in our core brands, includ-
ing gift with purchase, and in our fragrance business;
(3) consolidations, restructurings, bankruptcies and reor-
ganizations in the retail industry causing a decrease in the
number of stores that sell our products, an increase in
the ownership concentration within the retail industry,
ownership of retailers by our competitors or ownership of
competitors by our customers that are retailers;
(4) destocking by retailers;
(5) the success, or changes in timing or scope, of new
product launches and the success, or changes in the