Lifetime Brands reports wider quarterly loss

Kitchenware provider Lifetime Brands Inc. reported a wider loss and a boost in net sales in the second quarter, both of which the company attributes to its purchase of a Seattle-based housewares company this year.

Garden City-based Lifetime Brands is reaffirming the 2018 guidance it issued in May, when it said projected net sales would be between $760 million and $772 million, chief executive Rob Kay said while discussing the company’s financial results during an analysts’ call Monday.

Lifetime Brands, whose kitchenware brands include Farberware and KitchenAid, had a net loss of $6.1 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter that ended June 30, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million, or 0.14 cents per diluted share, in the same period in 2017.  

In May, the company reported that its net loss in the first quarter of the year was $11.6 million, compared with a loss of $1.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company attributed the losses to the seasonal nature of its business.

“We typically incur losses in the first and second quarters of the year but more than offset with income in the third and fourth quarters,” Kay said in an email.

The losses were wider this year due to Lifetime Brand’s March purchase of Seattle housewares company Filament Brands, whose business also was seasonal and more weighted to the second half of the year than Lifetime Brands was before the acquisition, Kay said.

Lifetime bought Filament on March 2 for about $313 million.

Lifetime’s net sales rose to $148.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 from $117.4 million a year earlier.

That increase was due mostly to the compay’s acquisition of Filament, said Laurence Winoker, Lifetime’s chief financial officer, during the call Monday.

The combination is expected “to be transformational, with progress becoming evident in the second half of this year and becoming more meaningful in 2019,” Kay said.

Also, the combined businesses are creating cost-cutting efficiencies that will save more than $10 million in 2019, Kay said in an email.

“This will have a corresponding positive impact on profitability,” he said.

Lifetime also is moving forward with its 2018 plan, which includes launching new programs and promotions, and shipping the largest single order in the company’s 73-year history in the third quarter. The company has declined to disclose the name of the customer.

Lifetime’s stock rose 3 percent Monday to close at $11.85. A year ago, it sold for $18.49, adjusted for splits and dividends.