Columbia Q3 net sales down 4 percent

Columbia Sportswear Company, a leading innovator in the

global active outdoor apparel and footwear industries has announced that its net sales stood at 545.0 million dollars (Rs 2,918 crores) for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, a 4 percent decline compared with net sales of 566.8 million dollars (Rs 3,035 crores) for the same period in 2011. Changes in currency exchange rates reduced reported net sales by approximately 2 percentage points.

Third quarter net income totaled 64.4 million dollars (Rs 344 crores), or 1.88 dollars (Rs 100.6) per diluted share, compared with net income of 67.5 million dollars (Rs 361 crores), or 1.98 dollars (Rs 106) per diluted share, for the same period in 2011. A higher effective tax rate contributed 0.11 dollars (Rs 5.8) to the reduction in third quarter 2012 earnings per share compared with the third quarter of 2011.

Tim Boyle, Columbia’s president and chief executive officer, commented, “Our third quarter benefited from improved gross margins and disciplined expense management, resulting in higher operating margin and further demonstrating our ability to navigate effectively through a slow-growth environment. We are pleased to raise our 2012 operating margin outlook based on better-than-expected results through the first nine months of the year.”

Boyle further added, “Looking ahead to 2013, we anticipate continued slow growth through at least the first half of the year, based in part on advance Spring 2013 wholesale orders, the fragile U.S. recovery, continued uncertainty in Europe, and signs of slowing in key Asian markets.”

The company currently expects full year 2012 net sales of approximately 1.7 billion dollars (Rs 9,103 crores), a 25 to 35 basis point decrease in gross margin. For the fourth quarter of 2012, the company expects net sales to increase up to 1.5 percent from net sales of 526.1 million dollars (Rs 2,817 crores) in the fourth quarter of 2011.