Escalade swings to quarterly profit
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Evansville-based Escalade Inc. is reporting first quarter net income of $1.8 million, compared to a loss of $952,000 during the same period last year.
The sporting goods and recreation equipment manufacturer on Thursday attributed the swing to a return to normalized seasonal demand for basketball products, outdoor games, and archery.
Net sales for the quarter totaled $57.3 million, a 0.7% increase over the first quarter in 2023.
“We are returning to more normalized market conditions as we move further from the pandemic driven peak in demand and elevated costs,” CEO Walter Glazer said in a news release. “We still have work to do, but we anticipate continued opportunity for margin improvement in 2024 despite our cautious outlook on consumer demand for discretionary recreational goods for the remainder of the year.”
Glazer said Escalade’s retail partners successfully reduced their inventory levels coming into 2024. Additionally, the company saw continued growth it its direct-to-consumer website sales, which increased 28% in the quarter.
“As we right size our asset base, including the planned divestiture of our Mexico operations, we expect to drive additional efficiencies in our fixed costs,” said Glazer. “We remain highly focused on optimizing our assets base and cost structure to further improve our return on assets.”
Looking ahead, Glazer said the company will continue to deploy available cash flow toward debt repayment, which should result in additional interest expense savings.
Escalade’s stock was up 0.07% to $14.01 per share at midday trading.
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