Even if students return to school and workers return to the office, changes in consumer spending will survive the pandemic.
“The house has become the center,” Ravi Saligram, CEO of Newell Brands, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday.
As companies become more flexible and their employees work remotely in a post-pandemic world, Saligram expects the increase in sales to continue longer than this year.
“We believe some of these trends are going to continue and we’re pretty innovative,” he said. “We believe that we will continue to grow in the future.”
The owner of brands like Papermate, Rubbermaid and Sharpie reported better-than-expected earnings and sales on Friday that rose 21% year over year to $ 2.29 billion.
“All eight of our companies have done well and grown. And seven out of eight companies grew double-digit worldwide,” said Saligram.
Newell raised his forecast for this year, citing students returning to school in person as a factor that contributed to his optimistic outlook.
“We had a feeling with our forecasts that we would do better than 2019, and much of it has to do with the continuation of consumer trends,” said Saligram. “A big part of [the positive outlook] is that we believe that most of the students will be back in school. We’re going to have a normal back to school season and that’s a big factor for us. “
Newell estimates that adjusted earnings will be between $ 1.63 and $ 1.73 per share this year. Revenue is expected to grow between $ 9.9 billion and $ 10.1 billion.
Newell Brands shares rose nearly 2% on Monday. The stock is up nearly 29% that year, valued at more than $ 11.7 billion.
