Tupperware says business on track, upbeat on 2008

By Ben Hirschler

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Business performance at Tupperware Brands Corp (TUP.N), best known for its food storage containers sold at in-home parties, is on track and its CEO said on Wednesday he was optimistic about the year ahead.

Despite growing concerns about the threat of recession in the United States, CEO Rick Goings said fundamentals were good.

"We're in a quiet period but through the third period of reporting we said we'd be up 7 percent plus (on revenues) on the year and up double-digit profits, and if we were going to miss those levels we would pre-release," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"I'm optimistic about the time ahead. We have 85 percent of business outside the U.S. but I'm optimistic about our U.S. business."

One reason for that confidence is the natural hedge embedded in the company's business model, which makes it counter-cyclical, he argued. "If you get a little higher unemployment, it makes it easier for us to recruit and recruitment is the key to our business," he said.

Tupperware has around 2 million sellers worldwide and Goings said he hoped to lift this to more than 2.2 million in the coming year.

The Orlando, Florida-based company's namesake Tupperware products today account for around 60 percent of the business, while 40 percent comes from beauty products. But Goings said this balance would shift in favor of beauty in future.

"My expectation is before I retire it will be more beauty than it is durable -- by 2012, 2014, something like that," he said. Beauty products are expected to grow by 7-10 percent a year, against 3-5 percent for the storage container business.

Tupperware will report 2007 results next week.

(editing by David Stamp)