Logitech says offices starting to re-equip for post-pandemic life

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) -Logitech International is seeing offices starting to re-equip for staff returning from working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Executive Bracken Darrell said on Tuesday as the company raised its full-year outlook.

The tech company has been a big beneficiary of people exiled from their workplaces during the pandemic stocking up on its computer mice, keyboards and webcams.

It is now seeing companies examining how their offices will look in future, when people use a hybrid of home and on-site locations, Darrell said after Logitech (NASDAQ:LOGI) reported smaller-than-forecast declines in third-quarter sales and operating income.

"I do think it is the big thaw," Darrell told Reuters. "It's as if we have had the big freeze and ...we are starting to see people making decisions on what the offices are going to be like when we get back into them.

"I don't think we are going to go back to offices like we did before. But we are going to need multiple places to work and people are going to need video in those offices because a lot of us are going to be at home, calling in."

Logitech posted a 2% drop in sales partly due to tough comparisons from a year earlier. The company was also wrestling with a shortage of semiconductor chips which has hit carmakers and tech firms.

Still, Logitech hiked its sales and profit outlook, sending its shares 8.1% higher on the Swiss exchange.

The Swiss-U.S. company, which posted a 74% sales increase last year, said it now expects full-year sales to rise between 2% and 5%, when measured in constant currencies.

Logitech, the first company to manufacture and sell computer mice in the 1980s, had previously forecast flat sales growth, plus or minus 5%.

It said it expected full year non-GAAP operating income between $850 million and $900 million, up from its previous view of $800 million to $850 million.

Sales fell to $1.63 billion in the three months ending Dec. 2021, while its non-GAAP operating income fell 37% to $302 million.

Darrell said the company was benefiting from long-term trends, like the growth in esports and video calling

The results beat expectations by a wide margin, said Bank Vontobel analyst Michael Foeth.

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"This important quarter has proven Logitech's ability to sustain revenue growth at very high levels, with strong execution capabilities and discipline in a challenging and dynamic market environment," the analyst said.