Until recently, it’s been kind of a tough road for Spy Optics (publically traded under the corporate name of Orange 21). Though sales grew from $22.3 million in 2002 to $42.4 million in 2006, profits of $911,000, $500,000, and $807,000 in 2002 through 2004 gave way to losses of $1.7 and $7.3 million respectively in 2005 and 2006. Gross profit, at 51% in 2002, had fallen to 41% in 2006. In addition, there More…
Archive for 2007
Spy Optics’ 3/31/07 Quarterly Report: Lemonade Out of Lemons
Friday, June 1st, 2007K2′s 2006 Annual Report
Monday, April 30th, 2007For the longest time, I thought about K2 as a ski and snowboard company. But that’s ancient history. They call themselves a “premier branded consumer products company” and divide their business into four segments: Marine and Outdoors ($407.6-million in 2006 sales), Action Sports ($421.4-million), Team Sports ($383.4-million), and Apparel and Footwear ($182.3-million). That’s a bit over $1.3-billion in total 2006 revenues. Snowboarding, obviously, is included in the action-sports segment. More…
Billabong’s Half Year Results- 12/31/06; The Impact of Acquisitions
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007I love reading Billabong’s reports. No, wait, I hate it. Actually I’m hopelessly conflicted. On the one hand, being traded in Australia, they don’t have to comply with the U. S. Security and Exchange Commissions filing requirements. There’s less small print and less mind numbing and sometimes superfluous information. But there’s also less information in general. Still, though they are allowed to take a bit more, let’s say, poetic license, they do a pretty good job More…
American Skiing Sells Steamboat; Leverage and Seasonality- a Tough Combination
Thursday, February 15th, 2007How many of you were with me in nineteen ninety whatever at the Transworld Snowboarding Industry Conference when then American Skiing Company (ASC) Chairman Les Otten stood up and thanked the snowboard industry for saving the ski resorts? Apparently we didn’t do enough- at least not for ASC. Its last ten years have been largely a process of trying to deleverage itself after an aggressive expansion left it, judging from its reported More…
Can We All Please Just Calm Down? A Business Perspective on Blanks
Thursday, February 8th, 2007I can’t believe I’m doing this. Oh lord, how many people am I going to piss off this time? I mean, I could just lay low and let the slings and arrows fly back and forth but no, I just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to keep my mouth shut. Instead, there’s this almost pathological need to try and reduce a highly controversial and frankly emotional issue to a series of business bullet More…
