Columbia Sportswear blamed the mild winter in North America, wariness among consumers and abundant discounts for weaker-than-expected sales and earnings in the fourth quarter of last year. The company predicted in October that its quarterly sales could increase by up to 1.5 percent, but it now expects that they will end up between $499 million and $503 million, which would amount to a decline of about 5 percent. The group previously predicted that its gross margin for the quarter would contract by 0.50 to 0.75 percentage points but it now expects that the gross margin will shrink by 1.2 to 1.3 percentage points. Net income should end up between $37.0 million and $40.0 million, down from the earlier projection of $44.0 million but still above income reported for the same quarter in 2011. More details are in The Outdoor Industry Compass and full results are to be published on Feb. 7.

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