Matrixx lowers Q4 guidance on back of slower cough-cold sales

PHOENIX The slow start to the 2007-08 cough and cold season continues to wreak havoc with cough and cold suppliers—retailers were already stocking fewer cough and cold medicines headed into the season and now they’re seeing no need to reorder excessively coming into the second half of the season.

The situation has forced Matrixx Initiatives, makers of Zicam, to restate its fourth-quarter guidance. “Although the most recent tracking data is showing an uptick in the incidence of illness, [Matrixx] is updating its previously issued guidance for fiscal 2008, ending March 31, 2008,” the company stated in a release Wednesday. Matrixx lowered its projections from a range of $9.3 million to $10.8 million to a range of $9 million and $10 million.

Matrixx claimed in that press release that the illness rates this year have been the lowest since 1999, citing Surveillance Data numbers.