New Moves

Generics/Blax USA has a new office as well as two new business addresses. The office, where you can contact Gary Land and Jamie Meiselman, is located at: 100 Cummings Center Suite 330B Beverly, MA 01915. Send billing information to: P.O. Box 59, Andover, NH 03216. And the new shipping address is: 519 Main Street, Andover, NH 03216. Call them at: (978) 921-4544; or FAX: (978) 921-4744.

Arson Snowboards has a new Web site. Check out the latest news on www.Arson.Ca

Planet X Clothing Inc. has moved to: 2156 West 12th Ave. Unit 11, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6K 2N2.

Gen-X Equipment Inc. has a new office located at: 17777 Main St., Unit E2, Irvine, CA 92614.

Zeal Optics has opened a new East Coast sales office. Call Bernie Dittenhofer, national sales manager, to see the Zeal line in the East at: 1-800-386-6256.

NRI Distribution Inc., of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, a provider of third-party distribution services to companies including Quiksilver, Roxy, Ride Snowboards, Sessions, Northwave, Lib Tech, Gnu, Arnette, Lamar, and A Sport, announces the opening of its new eastern warehouse located in Toronto, Ontario.

NRI will now be able to provide at-once inventory delivery in an efficient and cost-effective manner throughout central and eastern Canada as well as provide better service to its clients headquartered in the central and eastern U.S.

For more information contact Peter McKenna at: NRI Distribution Inc.: phone: (250) 573-2619; FAX: (250) 573-2417; or e-mail: [email protected]

The United States Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation has announced the schedule for its annual fund-raisers–the Ski and Snowboard Balls.

Held across the country, these events are one of the primary fund- raising programs for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Teams. Host cities include: New York, November 9; San Francisco, October 9; Salt Lake City, October 10; Denver, November 7; and Boston, October 2. New this year, Chicago will be added to the tour on November, 6.

Sponsorships are available from 5,000 dollars. Individual tickets are also available. For reservations or more information contact Sarah Selznick, special-events coordinator for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, at: 1-800-809-SNOW.

Columbia Sportswear Company increased its commitment to brand expansion in Asia by opening a retail store in Nagoya, Japan. The 1,152-square-foot shop opened March 14 and houses a broad selection of Columbia apparel and footwear. The store is part of the company’s strategic marketing plan to position Columbia Sportswear in the Asian market as a performance- and value-driven, head-to-toe brand. In addition, the new store will establish a foundation for the company’s expanding concept shop program, which currently has nine locations in Japan and 24 in Asia.

Marmot announces its recent hiring of Hal Riney & Partners of San Francisco as its advertising agency. With billings estimated at 700-million dollars, Hal Riney & Partners is one of the nation’s largest privately held agencies. It’s client list includes such well-known brands as Saturn, First Union National Bank, Sprint, America West Airlines, Aspen Ski Resorts, Clif Bar, Jon Deere, and the Public Broadcasting System.

Vans, Inc. has announced the dates and locations of the inaugural Vans/GShock Triple Crown of Snowboarding. The three-event series tour kicks off December 10—13, 1998 in Colorado, followed by an event February 12—14, 1999 (locations to be announced), and culminates March 4—7, 1999 in Northern California. Each event will feature multiple event disciplines and will continue Van’s tradition of offering substantial prize money in a format that is responsive to rider input. A major television package will be announced soon, along with the names of sponsors who will be supporting the tour. Malibu-based LXD, Inc. will serve as event promoter and executive producer of the television programs for the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding.

Winterfest ’98, sponsored by Dannon Yogurt, Boost, Mini Babybel, and Perrier along with Dryve Snowboards, was a hit. The Dryve Air Team gave demos each day on a twenty-foot trampoline. And Dryve snowboards were given out at the Dannon, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Dryve booths.

In addition, Dryve Snowboards has teamed up with another company to create personalized boards: Sol Cerveza. The boards will be used for upcoming promotions and in-house use. The boards are emblazoned with the rising Sol Cerveza logo and "Use Your Cabeza" motto.

Avalanche Snowboards recently announced the winners of its "Ride with Damian" drawing. The season-long promotion offered each person who purchased the Damian Sanders Ice Rocket pro model, as well as each person who sold one, the chance to spend an all-expenses-paid weekend riding at Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada with Damian. The winners were Byron Woods of Spokane, Washington, who purchased his Ice Rocket from Chris Perry, owner of Spokane Bike and Snowboard. Woods, Perry, and two guests (Woods’ brother Josh and Spokane Bike and Snowboard’s Chris Caro), were set up with rooms at the Blackcomb Aspen Suites, plane tickets, shuttle, lift tickets, and a fistful of spending cash.

For complete story, check the SNOWboarding Business section of: www.twsnow.com

Ridgeview, Inc., a leading hosiery manufacturer, has been awarded a license to utilize the Transpor Dry Fibre moisture management technology in its hosiery lines. Headquarterd in Newton, North Carolina, Ridgeview will introduce Transpor in the Rockport, Coleman, and Woolrich sock lines as well as its own Ridgeview brand.

For more information about Transpor contact Scott Jones at: (612) 924-0333; or [email protected] For Ridgeview contact Ander Horne at: 1-900-438-9517.

Mid Range Consulting introduces Frameworks, an inventory and customer management software suite that helps distributors shave inventory, cut costs, boost sales, and improve customer relations.

Frameworks consists of six modules: Customer Order Management, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Purchasing, and General Ledger. All are interlocked for an instantaneous transfer of information among functions.

For further information contact Bill Scharff at: Mid Range Consulting, Inc. 10 Chestnut Dr., Bedford, NH 03110; phone: (603) 471-1877; FAX: (603) 471-1878; or e-mail: bscharff@ midr. com

Skis Rossignol says it expects another "difficult" year and announced a restructuring charge to fight weak sales of its sporting goods in Asia. Rossignol suffered a loss of 3.4-million French francs (572,000 dollars U.S.) for the last fiscal year, its first in at least five, as sales slowed in Asia. The region typically generates nearly one-third of the industry’s sales. Rossignol posed a 76.1-million-franc profit the previous year.

In response, the company has reduced its reliance on Japan’s stalling economy. That market accounted for seventeen percent of sales last year, down 21 percent from the previous year. The company says it will take a fourteen-million-franc charge against this year’s earnings for efforts to improve results. The company also plans to shift the production of snowboards to its Spanish plant, away from France.

Rossignol’s full-year sales fell two percent to 2.32-billion francs from 2.37-billion francs in 1996. Operating profit shrank to 89.1-million francs from 203.4 million francs. The company’s long-term debt rose nine percent to 486-million francs from 444-million francs a year earlier, taking its ratio from debt to equity to 70 percent from 62 percent.

The company has also proposed a cut in its annual divident to 1.5 francs a share from 2.5 francs the previous year.

Quiksilver Inc. (Nasdaq: QUIK), has announced operating results for the second quarter and six months ended April 30, 1998.

Consolidated net sales for the second quarter of fiscal 1998 increased 28.6 percent to 78.2-million dollars, as compared with fiscal 1997 second-quarter consolidated net sales of 60.8-million dollars. Consolidated net income for the second quarter of fiscal 1998 increased 14.9 percent to 5.5-million dollars, or $.38 per share on a diluted basis, as compared with 4.8-million dollars or $.34 per share on a diluted basis, for the second quarter of fiscal 1997.

Basic earnings per share was $.39 for the current quarter, compared with $.34 for the same quarter in 1997. Domestic net sales during the second quarter of fiscal 1998 increased 22.7 percent to 49.6-million dollars as compared with fiscal 1997 second-quarter domestic net sales of 40.4-million dollars.

Consolidated net sales for the first six months of fiscal 1998 increased 25 percent to 133.4-million dollars, as compared with fiscal 1997 first-six-months consolidated net sales of 106.7-million dollars. Consolidated net income for the first six months of fiscal 1998 increased 16.5 percent to 7.7-million dollars, or $.53 per share on a diluted basis, as compared with 6.5-million dollars, or $.46 per share on a diluted basis, for the first six months of fiscal 1997.

Basic earnings per share was $.54 for the first six months, compared with $.47 for the first six months of fiscal 1997. Domestic net sales during the first six months of fiscal 1998 increased 19.8 percent to 82.2-million dollars, as compared with fiscal 1997 first-six-months domestic net sales of 68.6-million dollars.

Ride Sports recently announced its plans to change its year end from December 31 to July 1 through June 30 fiscal year. This change was approved by the company’s board of directors on April 22, 1998. A report covering the six-month transition period of January 1, 1998 through June 30, 1998 will be filed on Form 10-K no later than September 28, 1998.

American Skiing Company, Inc. recently announced an offer to exchange up to 120-million dollars of its twelve-percent Senior Subordinated Notes due July 15, 2006 for the existing ASC East twelve- percent Senior Subordinated Notes due July 15, 2006. The Exchange will simplify the company’s capital structure by consolidating substantially all its debt at the parent-company level and allowing a free flow of funds among the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries–ASC East, ASC West, and ASC Utah.

Concurrent with the Exchange, ASC intends to issue 100-million dollars in Senior Subordinated Notes due 2008. These Notes will be offered in a private placement pursuant to Rule 144A and will not be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the Unites States absent registration or an applicable exemption therefrom. The proceeds from the Notes will be used to reduce bank debt under the Company’s existing senior credit facility.

ASC has also announced results for its third quarter and nine months ended April 26, 1998, total revenues increased 41 percent to 185.6-million dollars. Pro forma resort revenue increased twelve percent for the third quarter to 144.6-million dollars and real-estate revenue was 40.9-million dollars for the quarter versus 2.7-million dollars for the comparable fiscal period in 1997. Net income available to common shareholders on a pro forma basis was 31.7-million dollars, or $1.03 per share diluted.

Intrawest Corporation announced financial results for its third quarter ended March 31, 1998. Income from continuing operations was 42.6-million dollars ($1.24 per share) for the third quarter compared with 30.7-million dollars ($1.02 per share) last year. Year-to-date income from continuing operations improved to 42.9-million dollars ($1.25 per share) from 27.5-million dollars ($1.07 per share) in the prior year. Total resort EBITDA for this period was 110.6-million dollars, 32 percent higher than the same period last year.

Revenue from ski and resort operations was 212.2-million dollars in the third quarter, up twenty percent from last year’s third-quarter revenue of 177.3-million dollars. This increase was due to a twelve-percent increase in same-resort revenue and the proportionate consolidation of Mammoth Mountain.

K2 Inc. (NYSE:KTO) reported net income of 3.1-million dollars, or $.19 per diluted share for the first quarter ended March 31, 1998, as compared with net income of 5.9-million dollars, or $.35 per diluted share, a year ago.

Sales for the quarter increased to 173.2-million dollars from 171.5-million dollars in the prior year.

Variflex Inc. reported a net loss for the second quarter ended January 31, 1998, of 2.79-million dollars, or $.46 per share, on net sales of 10.6-million dollars, compared with a net loss of 269,000 dollars, or $.04 per share on net sales of 13.8-million dollars, reported for the same period a year earlier.

For the six-month period ended January 31, 1998, the company reported a net loss of 2.8-million dollars, or $.47 per share, on net sales of 24.3-million dollars, compared with a net loss a year ago of 530,000 dollars or $.09 per share, on net sales of 26.1-million dollars.

Despite the loss reported for the six months, the company increased its cash and marketable securities investments to 26.1-million dollars as of January 31, 1998, compared with 22.8-million dollars as of July 31, 1997.

Bell Sports Corp. recently announced results for the fiscal 1998 third quarter ended March 28, 1998. Net income increased 52 percent to 3.2-million dollars or $.23 per share for the three months ended March 28, 1998 compared to net income of 2.1-million dollars or $.15 per share for the same time in 1997.

Net sales for the three-month period ended March 28, 1998 decreased six percent to 52.3-million dollars from 55.4-million dollars for the three-month period ended March 29, 1997–excluding the results of businesses sold. Net sales were 138.6-million dollars for the nine-month period ended March 28, 1998 compared to 140.8-million dollars for the fiscal 1997 period–excluding the results of businesses sold. The reduction in sales is attributable to the company’s elimination of low-margin products from its offerings and softer sales in the mass-merchant trade channel.

Columbia Sportswear Company announced record net sales of 74.9-million dollars for its first quarter ended March 31, 1998, an increase of 37.5 percent over last year. Net income was 2.1-million dollars, or $.11 per share (diluted) on 19.6-million weighted average shares outstanding for the first quarter, compared to a pro forma net loss of 860,000 dollars, or $.05 loss per share (diluted) on 18.8-million weighted average shares outstanding for the same period of last year.

The company reported that backlog for deliveries through December 31, 1998, was up eleven percent compared to the same time period last year. As of March 31, 1998, backlog was 315.4-million dollars as compared to backlog of 284-million dollars at March 31, 1997.

Columbia Sportswear went effective on March 26, 1998, and closed on its initial public offering on April 1, 1998. Earnings per share calculations for the company’s first quarter of 1998 do not represent a full weighting of the newly issued shares. As of March 31, 1998, there were 25,232,176 shares of the company’s common stock outstanding.