| The company looks forward to report appreciably better sales and earnings from continuing operations in 2008 |
Superior Uniform Group, Inc. reports significantly higher earnings from continuing operations for 2007
Superior Uniform Group, Inc., manufacturer of uniforms, image apparel and accessories, announced its fourth quarter and year-end operating results for 2007.
The Company announced that for the year ended December 31, 2007, earnings from continuing operations were $3,695,831 or $.55 per share (diluted) compared to $3,064,710 or $.45 per share (diluted) reported for the year ended December 31, 2006. Net sales were $120,457,891, compared to 2006 sales of $123,714,773.
During the fourth quarter of 2007, the Company made a decision to divest the Sope Creek business that resulted in a sale of the operating assets of the business effective February 4, 2008. As a result of this decision, we reclassified the operating results of Sope Creek to loss from discontinued operations, net of tax in the consolidated summary of operations. This includes a fourth quarter 2007 charge of $596,000, net of tax benefit, to write down the assets being sold to their estimated fair value less selling costs.
The sale of Sope Creek resulted in net proceeds approximating the net book value of the assets being sold after taking into consideration the fourth quarter charge discussed above. Loss from discontinued operations for the year ended December 31, 2007 was $1,146,503 or $.17 per share (diluted) compared to $867,443 or $.13 per share (diluted) for the year ended December 31, 2006.
Net earnings for the year ended December 31, 2007 were $2,549,328 or $.38 per share (diluted) compared to $2,197,267 or $.32 per share (diluted) reported for the year ended December 31, 2006.
Earnings from continuing operations for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 were $1,294,671 or $.19 per share (diluted) compared to $448,281 or $.06 per share (diluted) reported for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2006. Loss from discontinued operations for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 was $747,353 or $.11 per share (diluted) compared to $345,123 or $.05 per share (diluted) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2006. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 were $547,318 or $.08 per share (diluted) compared to $103,158 or $.01 per share (diluted) reported for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2006.
Michael Benstock, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are very pleased to report an increase of over 20% in our earnings from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2007 in comparison to 2006. We were able to report this increase despite a slight decline in net sales in 2007. It is especially encouraging to report a considerable increase in earnings from continuing operations of approximately 189% with a net sales gain of approximately 3% for the fourth quarter of 2007 in comparison to the fourth quarter of 2006.”
2007 was a year for making significant improvement in market sales and customer experience |
“We are beginning to realize the rewards from our renewed sales and marketing strategies as we launched several significant programs in the second half of 2007, primarily in the fourth quarter. Additionally, we are continuing to distribute these new programs as well as quite a few other new programs with existing customers in the first half of 2008. We continue to see positive operating margin trends as a result of our successful sourcing strategies and improved efficiencies in our distribution and value added services.”
As mentioned above, we made a decision during the fourth quarter of 2007 to sell our Sope Creek business and to focus strictly on our core image apparel and related product lines. Sope Creek has been a financial drain on the Company’s operating results for several years now as we were never able to achieve the scale necessary to support its related overhead structure.
We continue to focus our attention on improving our sales penetration of the markets that we serve and on continuing to deliver the best customer experience in our industry. We have made significant progress in both of these areas during 2007. The fourth quarter operating results show the beginning of our realization of the rewards of these efforts. As I mentioned earlier, we are already seeing noteworthy increases in our sales and operating results in the first quarter of 2008 and we look forward to reporting appreciably better sales and earnings from continuing operations in 2008.”
Superior Uniform Group®, through its Signature marketing brands – Fashion Seal®, Fashion Seal Healthcare™, Martin’s®, Worklon®, and UniVogue™ – manufactures and sells a wide range of uniforms, image apparel and accessories. Superior specializes in managing comprehensive uniform programs, and is dedicated to servicing the Healthcare, Hospitality, Restaurant/Food Services, Retail Employee I.D., Governmental/Public Safety, Entertainment, Commercial, and Cleanroom markets.
Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those identified in the Company’s SEC filings, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected.