Bath & Body Works saw lower annual sales last year, which an analyst says reflects tougher competition and consumers spending less on personal care.

The company’s net sales declined 1.7 per cent to $7.43 billion while net income increased 9.8 per cent to $878 million.

“The extra week of trading came to the company’s aid; without this, sales would have fallen by 2 per cent. Even so, this is not a terrible result and continues to represent an improvement on prior quarters as the company normalizes after a pandemic-related boom,” said GlobalData MD Neil Saunders.

He said Bath & Body Works needs to improve its online visibility and work harder on marketing to male consumers to boost sales.

“The cost-of-living crisis continues to impact the company with consumers cutting back on their purchases of home fragrance and, to a certain extent, body care items.”

“On top of this, Bath & Body Works continues to be impacted by tougher competition, especially from online players in home fragrance. Quite simply, there is a lot more choice for consumers in categories like candles, which is leading to a bit more shopping around and some consumers spending a bit less at Bath & Body Works as they experiment with different retailers.”

For this year, the company forecasts net sales to be between a decline of 3 per cent and remaining flat.