NEW YORK (BRAIN) — Vista Outdoor’s Action Sports group of brands, which includes its bike-related brands, saw sales of $151 million in the company’s most recent quarter, up 44% from the same period last year.
The Action Sports segment includes Bell Sports, Giro, Blackburn, Fox Racing, QuietKat, Krash, Raskullz, and Copilot.
Company executives noted that sales of Bell’s lower-end and mid-tier helmets were difficult in the quarter due to high retailer inventory. But it said QuietKat’s e-bike sales doubled in the quarter and higher-priced products from the segment also sold well.
“Our consumers are still relatively healthy and well employed,” CEO Chris Metz told analysts on a conference call last week. Metz said to expect a challenging economy through at least the next couple of quarters. “We’re of the belief that it’s more of an inflationary environment than it is a recessionary environment,” he said.
Vista Outdoor has 41 brands and has moved into several new, adjacent, product categories in recent years, including a move into sports protection with the purchase of Fox Racing, announced in July.
Next year, the company plans to split into two, with its seven “Sporting Products” brands (largely brands related to ammunition) becoming a stand-alone company and its 34 “Outdoor Products” brands (including all its bike-related brands, CamelBak and others) spinning off into a yet-to-be named company headquartered in Montana and led by Metz. Both companies will be publicly traded.
Across the current Outdoor Products division, sales were up 6% in the quarter, largely thanks to newly acquired brands, the company said. Across the division, organic sales were down, it said.
The second quarter report included Fox Racing’s revenues from Aug. 5 to Sept. 25. It also included full-quarter revenue from recent acquisitions Stone Glacier (a hunting backpack brand) and Foresight Sports (a golf technology brand) for the first time. QuietKat's revenues were already counted in the comparable quarter last year.
Company-wide, sales were nearly flat, up 0.4% to $782 million in the quarter. Gross profit declined 12% to $263 million. The report is for Vista's fiscal 2023 second quarter, which ended Sept. 25.
The company’s shares are traded on Nasdaq under the VSTO symbol. Stock quotes are available at investors.vistaoutdoor.com.
