Heely’s Rolls Through First Quarter in Public Eye…

Heely's, Inc. ended its first quarter as a public company at the same time as it ended its first fiscal year, all the while reporting triple-digit growth for sales and earnings for both periods. Sales grew both within the U.S. and without, with domestic sales increasing 341% to $161.3 million for the year, while international sales jumped to $26.9 million from $7.4 million last year. The good news is not relegated to the past for the company as management said on a conference call with analysts that “backlog at 12/31/06 was $53.2 million. That compares to $10.7 million at 12/31/05.”

For the fourth quarter, net sales jumped 377% to $71.1 million from $14.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Domestically, sales increased 365% to $60.7 million, while international sales jumped to $10.4 million from $1.8 million for the fourth quarter last year. On the conference call, management commented that “the UK, Canada and Ireland deliver[ed] the strongest performance in 2006.”

For the fourth quarter, gross profit was 35.3% of net sales, compared to 34.2% of net sales for the fourth quarter last year. Total selling, general and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of 2006 were 10.0% of net sales, compared to 19.1% of net sales in the fourth quarter of last year. Net income jumped 700% over the same period to $11.5 million versus $1.4 million a year ago, with diluted earnings per share increasing 633% to 44 cents from 6 cents last year.

The company does not offer specific guidance for quarterly or annual earnings, but does have a stated objective to provide annual net sales and net income growth of 20-25% over the next several years. In addition, looking at the year ahead, management said “our focus will be on growing and expanding our wheeled footwear business segment, which accounted for 98% of our total business this past year.”