The Consumer Is Starting to Come Back: Clorox CEO
The U.S. consumer is starting to turn around, Clorox CEO Donald Knauss told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday.
"As the jobs continue to build a bit, we're seeing the (product) categories in the U.S. continue to recovery," the Clorox executive said. "With 70 percent of the economy driven by consumer spending, as people feel more confident about getting a job or keeping their own job, we think that will drive consumer confidence up." (Read More: Pre-Election Jobs Report Shows Some Gain; Rate 7.9%.)
Clorox said it has seen demand steadily increasing. Knauss said category growth in the U.S. was 1.5 percent to 2 percent.
"That's a big reversal from where we were two years ago when it was down two percent," the Clorox CEO said.
Latin America is also growing. With two-thirds of Clorox's business in Latin America, "We're seeing volume growth in mid-single digits," he said.
During the fiscal first quarter, Clorox posted revenue growth of about 3 percent, the seventh quarterly revenue increase, Knauss said. Gross margin expansion and cost savings also helped the company post an improvement in earnings during the quarter.
Clorox also reiterated its forecast for sales growth of 2 to 4 percent in fiscal 2013.
