Estee Lauder 2009 Annual Report Download - page 116

THE EST{E LAUDER COMPANIES INC. 115
(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
proceedings, 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 prod-
ucts in the same markets and our operating and manufac-
turing costs outside of the United States;
(10) changes in global or local conditions, including those
due to the volatility in the global credit and equity markets,
natural or man-made disasters, real or perceived epi-
demics, 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 returns that we are able
to generate on our pension assets and the resulting impact
on funding obligations, 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 or
by restructurings;
(12) real estate rates and availability, which may affect
our ability to increase or maintain 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;
(14) our ability to acquire, develop or implement new
information and distribution technologies and initiatives
on a timely basis and within our cost estimates;
retrospective application. We are currently not a party to
signifi cant collaborative arrangement activities, as defi ned
by EITF No. 07-1.
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
initiatives, new methods of sale, our long-term strategy,
restructuring and other charges 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
products on which future operating results may depend
and to successfully address challenges in our 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, owner-
ship of retailers by our competitors or ownership of
competitors by our customers that are retailers and our
inability to collect receivables;
(4) destocking and tighter working capital management
by retailers;
(5) the success, or changes in timing or scope, of
new product launches and the success, or changes in
the timing or the scope, of advertising, sampling and
merchandising programs;
(6) shifts in the preferences of consumers as to where and
how they shop for the types of products and services
we sell;