Jarden Corporation's Outdoors Solutions division, which includes Pure Fishing, Coleman and K2, recorded fourth quarter sales of $494.0 million, a 13.4% drop from last year's sales of $570.2 million. Operating loss for the quarter improved 98.1% from a loss of $21.5 million in 2007 to a loss of $0.4 million in 2008. For the full fiscal year 2008, the company reported sales of $2.5 billion, a 46.1% increase over $1.7 billion the previous year. FY08 operating earnings were $172.3 million, a 293.4% increase from the previous year's operating earnings of $43.8 million, a number reflecting the boost from the company's K2 acquisition.

 

The company recorded a net loss of $170 million, or $2.28 a share, after a non-cash impairment charge against goodwill and intangible assets of $283 million resulting from the company's annual impairment testing. Sales decreased 8% to $1.4 billion from $1.5 billion a year ago.

The loss in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008 compared to a net loss of $11.2 million, or 15 cents, a year ago.



On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income was $62.7 million, or $0.83 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, compared to $48.9 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2007.


 


For the year ended Dec. 31, 2008, net sales increased 16% to $5.4 billion compared to $4.7 billion in the previous year. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2008, the company recorded a net loss of $58.9 million, or (78 cents) per share, compared to net income of $28.1 million, or 38 cents per diluted share, in the year ended Dec. 31, 2007. The results include a non-cash impairment charge against goodwill and intangible assets of $283 million resulting from the company’s annual impairment testing. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income was $209 million, or $2.74 per diluted share, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2008, compared to $171 million, or $2.33 per diluted share, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007.


 


At Dec. 31, 2008, the company’s working capital was $1.4 billion and cash and cash equivalents were $393 million, over $30 million higher than the estimate provided in early January. The company’s leverage ratio for bank purposes was 3.5x, ahead of the estimate provided in January, the position at the end of 2007 and leaving significant room below the bank covenant. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2008 cash flows from operations was $250 million, adding to the company’s overall strong liquidity position.




The Pure Fishing, Inc. and K2 Inc. businesses have been included in the results of operations from their dates of acquisition in April 2007 and August 2007, respectively.


 


“Despite an incredibly challenging macroeconomic environment, Jarden delivered another record year of sales, segment earnings and adjusted EPS in 2008,” said Martin E. Franklin, chairman and CEO of Jarden Corporation. “Our strong operating results and market share gains have shown that our business can outperform the competition even in the most difficult of times. The improvement in operating margins during the fourth quarter was a testament to our focus on operating excellence and the mix shift within our business. Our diversified portfolio of market-leading brands continued to demonstrate resiliency in 2008. We attribute the successful year to our ongoing investments in developing innovative new products, enhancing our brands and leveraging our scale within the flexible operating platform we have built.”



Franklin continued, “We fully expect the difficult operating environment to continue for the near term. As such, we believe Jarden is positioned from a balance sheet, as well as sales and margin perspective to emerge from this recessionary environment better positioned for organic growth than at any time in our history. While the creation of Jarden began in 2001, the company has only operated in its present form for the last 18 months during which period we have proved that Jarden can produce a strong and sustainable performance. We believe that having proved the robustness of our diversified business model, the outlook for Jarden should only get better as the macro economy improves.”