Everlast shares to a major hit last week, falling nearly 19% for the week to close at $3.00 on Friday after Q3 revenues dropped 10.1% to $15.8 million compared to $17.7 million last year. As a percentage of sales, third quarter licensing revenues increased to 15.8%, or $2.5 million compared to 9.0% or 1.6 million last year.
Gross margin increased 120 basis points to 36.2% compared to 35.0%, but Everlast still posted a net loss available to common stockholders of $250,000, compared with a net income of $104,000 last year. Third quarter loss per share was 8 cents compared to earnings per share of 3 cents last year.
The sales shortfall was said to be caused by “regional truck shortages and west coast port problems” which prevented Everlast from shipping orders. Certain merger integration issues with the companys larger customers resulted in delays in placing forecasted Q3 orders that are now being shipped in the fourth quarter.
The company is putting more resources into a deal inked with Contender Partners, LLC and Foot Locker. George Q Horowitz, chairman and CEO, said, “Our results of operations during the third quarter were impacted by higher promotion and advertising costs associated with the launch of our new Heritage collection which will be showcased on The Contender reality television show as well as higher logistical and warehousing costs associated with higher freight costs due to increases in fuel.”