Columbia Sportswear is resigned to taking a $1million hit this year as a result of the European anti-dumping duties against China and Vietnam. It’s projecting a total income decline of 10 percent, in spite of higher orders in hand.
While the order backlog grew by 12 percent to $848.9 million in the 1st quarter, it fell below expectations. Organically, orders rose by 7.6 percent on a currency-neutral basis. They were flat in Europe and Canada but strong in Japan. Sportswear was the key driver in domestic backlogs as well as for global orders. Futures orders for the Sorel brand grew moderately in Europe, in Japan and in distributor markets.
Columbia’s net income fell by 9 percent to $19,467,000 in the quarter. Sales rose by 6 percent to $260,211,000, with increases of 3 percent in Europe and 2 percent in Canada. Total sales outside of the USA were up by 12 percent to $41.4 million. U.S. sales grew by 6 percent to $144.4 million. By category, global sales were up by 7 percent in sportswear, by 8 percent for outerwear, by 53 percent for equipment and by 2 percent in footwear. Sales of accessories dropped by 20 percent. The Mountain Hardware brand reported a 36 percent increase in sales to $16.1 million in the quarter.
In 2007 the company expects to see the impact of its new footwear management team and expects a better engineered product at traditional gross margin levels. The recently acquired Pacific Trail group of brands is expected to add $20 million in annual sales.
