WESTPORT, CT (BRAIN) — CamelBak revenue was down 5 percent in the third quarter, a decline being blamed on cold, wet weather and the U.S. military's drawdown.
The effect of the military drawdown were expected, but the weather was not, executives at Compass Diversified Holdings, the owner of CamelBak, told investors Thursday.
"The weather is never something I’d like to have to point to when commenting on a business performance but it's just a reality in this case," said Elias J. Sabo, a founding partner of Compass Group Management. "It was cold and wet in many parts of country; that was a headwind that is hard to do anything about. The company did everything it could to position it with good products in the marketplace and continued innovation," he said.
Sabo said Compass has anticipated the effect of a military drawdown even before Compass bought CamelBak in 2011. CamelBak completed a large order for the U.S. Marines in the first quarter this year, but historically most of its military sales are to individual soldiers through base retail operations.
In addition to the 5 percent revenue decline in the quarter, the CamelBak division saw a 20 percent decline in Ebitda. Compass did not release third quarter revenue numbers for the CamelBak division. In August, Compass reported that CamelBak first half sales had dropped 9 percent to $77.3 million.
Compass owns many companies, including a printed circuit board manufacturer, a furniture manufacturer, the ErgoBaby stroller brand and the Liberty Safe brand. Compass spun off Fox Shox in an IPO earlier this year but still retains a 54 percent ownership in Fox and included Fox's revenue in its revenue reports. Fox management held a separate conference call with investors on Wednesday, where they reported that suspension sales were up 10 percent in the third quarter.
Compass is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the CODI symbol. Its stock performance is tracked on the BRAIN stock page.
