Apparently, personal needs manufacturer Kimberly Clark is planning on raising prices for the second time this year.
The company released their third quarter earnings report, and it not only referenced inflation concerns several times, but their shares fell by as much as 2% during the trading on Monday. Kimberly-Clark also owns such brands as Kleenex, Scott Toilet paper, Cottonelle, and Huggies diapers.
“Our earnings were negatively impacted by significant inflation and supply chain disruptions that increased our costs beyond what we anticipated,” explained Kimberly-Clark chief executive Mike Hsu. “We are taking further action, including additional pricing and enhanced cost management, to mitigate these headwinds as it is becoming clear they are not likely to be resolved quickly.”
The company has now decreased their earnings per share outlook and they have increased their projected organic sales decline because of “significantly higher input cost inflation.”
If there is any bright spot for Kimberly Clark, it would probably have to be that revenue raised by7%. However, at the same time their net income dipped 1% from just a year ago. Fox Business is reporting that Kimberly Clark had been forced to hike prices last June by as much as the single digits.
Kimberly-Clark is far from the only consumer firm that is being forced to raise prices and sound the alarm over rising inflation, which is now listed at 5.4% as of September.
John Gessert is the leader of Plastic Toys, and he said during a CNBC interview that he believed that inflation was going to be less transitory than what other officials acknowledge: ”
“It’s not going to be transitory because … I can’t imagine going back to the people that have stuck with us and saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to take $1 out of your hourly wage.’ I just don’t see wage inflation retreating any time soon.”
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Carl Icahn is now asserting that “in the long run we are certainly going to hit the wall” due to these rising price levels. “I really think there will be a crisis the way we are going, the way we are printing money, the way we are going into inflation. If you look around you, you see inflation all around you, and I don’t know how you deal with that in the long term.”
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that advanced economies will need to “stay vigilant” for the signs of “persistent inflation.” This is despite the fact that economists are still predicting a moderation in the consumer price increases through the end of 2022. However, the intergovernmental organization also believes that “sizable uncertainty exists – particularly in the United States.” However, they commented further on the issue.
“Near-term inflation risks are on the upside, particularly if pent-up demand by consumers is stronger than anticipated, or if supply shortages take a long time to overcome,” said the report. “The impact of past increases in shipping costs and commodity prices is already sizeable in the G20 economies, accounting for much of the rise in inflation over the past year, and is likely to linger through much of 2022 even if there are no further cost increases.”