Golf a Bright Sport in Tough Third Quarter for Perry Ellis

Nearly all the decline came from the exit of businesses, including the PING golf apparel line, Dockers outerwear as well as certain private label businesses in the mass channel. On the upside, solid gains were seen in its golf and Hispanic brands, Grand Slam and Centro, at Kohl's, as well as John Henry and Laundry.

On a conference call with analysts, company Chairman and CEO George Feldenkreis said the core PERY golf brands – Grand Slam, PGA TOUR and Links Editions – were “top performers across all retailers” in the quarter.  “This above-planned performance has encouraged retailers to move up receipts as they chase this growing business during the current holiday season, and next coming spring season, 2010,” said Feldenkreis. The Callaway collection will ship in January to nearly 700 doors at higher-end department stores. Feldenkreis called the reception to the line “nothing short of spectacular.”

A new Top-Flite golf apparel collection will launch at 800 Kmart doors in 2010.

Swimwear, which includes Nike swim, underperformed due to “unusually cold weather” in the first half. But Feldenkreis said orders for the Jantzen and JAG swim brands are coming in above plan. He also noted that the strong results at retail in outerwear are “historically reliable barometer” for the upcoming swim season. “We are confident of the strong potential and performance of our swim division into Q4 and beyond,” he said.

Although initial results from restructuring efforts for its action sports segment, which includes Gotcha, MCD and Redsand, have been “encouraging,” the business is performing below expectations.
Net earnings in the quarter fell to $4.1 million or 31 cents a share, from $5.0 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier, but were above Wall Street's consensus estimate of 21 cents due to expense reductions.