Nissan, Marriott and Clorox describe effects on sales, travel and supply chains
Nissan Motor Chief Financial Officer George Leondis told analysts that the company expects the Middle East conflict to reduce vehicle sales by about 18,000 units in the first half of the year and cut profit by 20 billion yen, or $127.1 million. Nissan had previously projected a reduction of 19,000 units and a profit impact of 15 billion yen.
“In the Middle East, geopolitical tensions and shipping constraints are expected to persist, resulting in higher logistics costs and pressure on volumes despite the resilient customer demand,” Leondis said Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal.
Nissan reiterated its annual earnings forecasts while reporting its first quarterly net profit in two years. The company said sales increased in the United States and Japanese markets during the three months ended in June, while cost reductions and foreign-exchange gains supported its bottom line.
Marriott International said the conflict affected second-quarter sales. The hotel company reported a 5% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to $7.07 billion, while revenue per available room in the Middle East fell 43%.
Marriott Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Mason said executives were preparing for continuing effects from the conflict, including a potentially larger impact during the region’s peak travel season. “The challenge in Q4 is…in the Middle East, that is the largest quarter for revenue,” Mason said Monday. “It’s something like 35% of the Middle East’s full year revenue happens in Q4.”
Clorox expects the conflict to continue affecting costs. The household-products maker expects fiscal 2027 inflation of about $200 million. Bellet said the amount was “more than double the historical range.”
“The current geopolitical backdrop continues to create volatility across energy, commodity and supply chain markets,” Bellet said. He said Clorox was seeing higher supplier, ocean-freight, trucking and other logistics costs, adding that inflationary pressures were likely to extend beyond the headline oil price.
The earnings comments came as President Trump criticized Chevron and ExxonMobil over their profits. Trump said the companies were “making too much money” and should return some profits to the public.
“When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “And they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.”
Chevron and ExxonMobil reported quarterly profits. The Wall Street Journal report linked the companies’ results to the conflict’s effects on global markets and energy prices.
Separately, W.W. Grainger said its senior vice president and chief financial officer, Deidra Merriwether, will leave on Sept. 4 to pursue another opportunity. Merriwether joined the company in 2013 and has served as finance chief since January 2021.
Grainger said Laurie Thomson, its vice president, controller and principal accounting officer since May 2021, will become interim finance chief on Sept. 5. The company has begun searching for a permanent replacement.