Casual clothing and activewear maker Delta Apparel Inc has booked a 50.6% hike in fourth quarter profit, offsetting “less than ideal market conditions” to post higher sales and margins.
As well as organic growth, results were helped by the acquisition of The Cotton Exchange, the college bookstore of division of Soffe, new license agreements, and strong sales of its branded Salt Life and Junk Food lines.
For the fiscal year ended 2 July 2011 , profit jumped 42.2% to $17.3m or $1.98 per share, from $12.2m or $1.40 per share a year earlier. Annual sales were up 12.0% to a record $475.2m, the company said, while gross margins improved 80 basis points to 24.5% .
Branded segment sales rose 12.6% to $60.6m in the quarter, and grew 12.1% to $221.7m for the year.
The basics segment, meanwhile, saw quarterly sales rise 6.5% to $77.1m, driven by sales growth in catalogue products, partially offset by declines in the private label programmes. A 22.2% increase in average selling prices was partially offset by lower unit sales. For the 12 months, the basics segment increased 11.9% to $253.5m.
“Having a vertically integrated, flexible manufacturing platform allows us to leverage our scale efficiencies while providing consistently high-quality products and reliable service to our customers,” noted Robert Humphreys, chairman and CEO.
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By GlobalDataLooking ahead, the company is maintaining its fiscal year outlook for sales sales in the range of $500m to $520m and earnings of $2.00 to $2.15 per share.
“While we are currently operating in a macroeconomic environment that is not particularly conducive to consumer spending and could pose some near-term challenges, we believe our collection of brands provides Delta Apparel, Inc. with compelling long-term growth opportunities through further diversification of products and distribution channels,” Humphreys noted.
