Expense controls were the name of the game for ICON Health & Fitness in its first fiscal quarter as the company managed to rein in expenses that help offset slower sales growth and a dip in gross margins as it posted an improvement in the quarterly net loss.

For the fiscal first quarter ended September 2, ICON reported net sales of $141.2 million, an increase of 1.1% over $139.6 million posted in the same period last year. Sales in the company’s cardio equipment division increased 1.9% to $117.0 million, while the strength division saw sales slip 2.4% to $24.2 million.

Offsetting the sales increase was an 80 basis point decrease in gross margins for the quarter to 25.6% of net sales, down from 26.4% last year. This decrease was more than offset by a 400 basis point decrease in SG&A expenses, down to 29.0% of sales from 33.0% during the year-ago quarter.

All told, the SG&A decrease combined with the sales gain to overcome the margins decrease and shrink the company’s quarterly net loss, but not enough to turn it to a gain in the seasonally slow quarter.

The net loss was $18.0 million for the first quarter, slimmed from a loss of $24.8 million for the same period last year.