Lakeland Industries - Earnings Call - Q3 2021

Transcript

Speaker 0

Information during this call contain forward looking information within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical facts, which reflect management's expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of today, 12/10/2020. Forward looking statements are based on current assumptions and analysis made by the company in light of its experience and in its perception of historical trends, current conditions, including business affairs pertaining to the COVID-nineteen pandemic, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate under circumstances. These statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties and factored in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, general economic and business conditions, the business opportunities that may be presented to you and pursued by the company, changes in law regulations and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the company. Listeners are cautioned that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and the actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in any forward looking statements.

All subsequent forward looking statements attribute to the company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. At this time, I would like to introduce your host for this call, Lakeland Industries' Chief Executive Officer, Charles D. Robertson. Mr. Robertson, the floor is yours.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good afternoon to you all. We appreciate you taking the time to join our fiscal twenty twenty one third quarter financial results conference call. I'm joined here today by Lakeland's Chief Financial Officer, Alan Dillard. We had a blowout third quarter where I believe we sent an indelible message to the global PPE marketplace and hopefully to our shareholders and investors alike that Lakeland is the source for protective apparel not only during black swan events, but any time of any year when quality and delivery are critical. Our production capacity, resiliency and flexibility are unparalleled, and our production lines are expanding to generate long term traction with customers around the world to drive sustainably improved profitability absent any black swan event such as COVID-nineteen.

No discussion of our third quarter performance would be complete if we did not recognize the great lengths our global team has gone to in support of the health care community's defense against COVID-nineteen. While taking measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff and their families, our partners, and our customers around the world, we are fortunate to have a team that has repeatedly risen to the challenge. Our ability to meet and surpass Lakeland's obligations as a global supplier of personal protective equipment or PPE during the COVID nineteen pandemic has helped to alleviate PPE shortages and protected health care workers and first responders around the world. As a result of the dedication of our people, the scalability of our manufacturing and efficiency improvements, we are unfortunately or fortunately depending on one's perspective, a significant beneficiary on the business front as a result of the pandemic. Aside from our financial results being reported today, which may draw the attention of many, we realize that more important news relates to the FDA's review of the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna COVID nineteen vaccine candidates.

These are two of the vaccines that are under consideration for use around the world. Regardless of which vaccines are used and when or where they are administered, we believe the requirements for PPE will remain intact. The vaccines will take about six months for initial patient injection. And throughout that process, there will be demand for protective apparel for those administering the vaccine as well as continued usage in dealing with the care of those infected and all associated cleanup and remediation activities. When the COVID nineteen crisis is behind us, which we believe may be substantially but not entirely the case by mid-twenty twenty one, Lakeland will emerge with revenue and sustainable performance attributes.

These include, number one, scores of new industrial customers. Number two, a globally strengthened brand as a personal protective equipment manufacturer that can deliver quality garments in large quantities in times of industry shortage unlike anyone else. Number three, an enviable position as perhaps the most global of any PPE manufacturer in the world that actually owns its manufacturing, setting us apart from the largest players in the market. Number four, new higher margin products targeting large market segments, which have suffered unreliable delivery prior to the entry of our products. Number five, our existing product lines outside of disposables and chemical suits, including wovens, FR garments, high visibility, and other apparel, are likely to see demand resurgence as customer spending allocations transition from COVID nineteen to traditional industrial spending.

Number six, lessons learned throughout the pandemic on how we can best utilize our investments in technology, manufacturing and product planning. This includes, but is not limited to, our gross margin strategy. Industry dynamics have put a face on PPE. No longer will it be a back office purchasing function. Now it has become a mainstream frontline necessity that is foregoing that is forging a new market opportunity in the form of institutional cleaning.

And number seven, a cash war chest that as of 10/31/2020, was over $4,000,000 and growing. Lakeland's 2021 further improved upon the record performance levels achieved earlier this year. We have demonstrated our ability to flex our global manufacturing capacity in response to surging PPE demand around the world during critical times. The Lakeland brand is strengthening as our reputation for reliable delivery and quality continues to grow, as evidenced by the unprecedented number of direct container shipment orders placed with us from new customers and existing customers alike during the third quarter. While we set a new standard of excellence for PPE manufacturers around the world at the end of our second quarter, in our third quarter, we raised that bar further.

Through sustainable improvements and continued COVID-nineteen demand, our performance led to record Q3 levels of revenues, gross profit and margin, operating income and free cash flow. On an all time quarterly basis, we set records for gross margin as a percentage of sales, operating income and margin, EBITDA and EBITDA margin and free cash flow. More importantly, we believe we will exit the COVID-nineteen era with critical market share gains, a brand synonymous with reliability and an enhanced visibility into sustainable improvements that are expected to significantly elevate our business performance from what was reported before the pandemic set in. Global economic activity began recovering in the third quarter, which led to our traditional industrial business growing from the second quarter even though our base revenues remained below pre pandemic levels. According to the conference board, The U.

S. Economy alone, which as a reminder has typically accounted for approximately 50% of our consolidated revenue, contracted 5% in Q1 of calendar year 'twenty and thirty one point four percent in Q2 of calendar year 'twenty. In the third quarter, there was a rebound of 33.1%. And according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the BEA, The U. S.

Economy was 3.5% smaller in the third quarter of calendar year 'twenty than it was in the 2019. Our traditional core business, consisting primarily of industrial markets, was off by an estimated 19% globally in our third quarter as compared to the prior year period, but is expected to continue to improve from the lowest levels in our fiscal second quarter as COVID-nineteen sales taper off and industrial activity continues to improve. Amid the sequential quarter improvement, our traditional industrial business growth continues to be eclipsed by PPE demand for the COVID-nineteen response. For the fourth consecutive quarter, we experienced increased demand for our products relating to COVID-nineteen. An estimated thirty five percent of our fiscal twenty twenty one third quarter sales are related to COVID-nineteen demand.

Demonstrating our global diversification, revenues from our international markets outpaced our domestic growth. International sales in our third quarter increased by 19% sequentially from our second quarter and by 84% from the prior year period. While total U. S. Revenues grew 20% from the third quarter of the last fiscal year, We attribute this lopsided growth to greater opportunity and success in increasing market penetration in foreign markets, a development that will further diversify our sales as we move forward.

Demand for disposable and chemical garments remains heightened. This is evidenced by the number of new customers we have amassed over the past nine months and the significant increase in container sized orders in our third quarter as we delivered product when many others could not. Two key new product lines for Critical Environment and High Performance Wear gained relatively meaningful ground. This is significant as they are part of our long term strategy for continued revenue growth and sustainably higher gross margins. The supply of product from manufacturers in key markets like The U.

S. Has been catching up with demand. We've been successful in navigating the demand profile to capture sales and pivot our manufacturing accordingly. Globally, pricing and order flow related to COVID-nineteen demand are expected to remain elevated from pre pandemic levels, but are expected to decline through mid-twenty twenty one. In the interim, the pricing power has been favorable for us.

Other factors that contributed to our third quarter results include increased direct container shipments, higher consolidated volume, continued improvement in manufacturing efficiencies and our product mix management. All of these factors led to our strong gross profit performance, and we'll continue to manage these areas to drive margins above our pre pandemic levels. For example, we anticipate our disposable and chemical SKUs will increase by approximately 50% from COVID response levels as we settle into our post COVID sustainable product mix strategy. The result will be a sustained reduction in SKUs of about 40%, which will result in the expected benefits to inventory efficiencies and ultimately profitability. We've learned a lot during the past four quarters, which we believe will provide for sustainable growth in both revenue and profitability.

SKU rationalization is critical to our sustaining elevated financial performance in a post COVID-nineteen business environment. A reduction of underperforming SKUs and the launch of new higher margin product lines for critical environment and high performance wear are a few examples of our efforts. These higher value advanced product lines are unique within the industry, so we expect less global competition as compared to lower priced traditional disposable garments. The target markets for both product lines are largely insensitive to economic trends and independent of COVID-nineteen response, and therefore, will serve as a solid platform for expansion of our core business product offering well into the future. Also factoring into our forward revenue growth strategy is a new era of institutional cleaning and a broader acceptance of PPE, which has begun to emerge and may provide for a large permanent market opportunity.

Stockpiling requests for disposable and chemical apparel by government entities in U. S, Europe and other developing countries have already been made public. Because we own our own manufacturing and continue to invest in facilities, technology, processes and personnel, we have gained significant ground and are poised to further benefit from these favorable market dynamics. More than just record financial performance for the past two quarters, our results demonstrate a quality of earnings and cash flow, which has benefited from improvements in profitability measures, factory floor and distribution efficiencies and operating leverage. As we mentioned last quarter, COVID-nineteen provided us with a proving ground for change that will benefit Lakeland well into the future.

The sustainable leverage and scalability in our business, which we have clearly demonstrated in the third quarter, can be deployed not only in future Black Swan events, but because so many of our improvements have staying power, we will utilize them to drive improved future performance. With our cash in excess of $40,000,000 at the end of the third quarter, we are primed for continued growth on a traditional basis and for any emergency situations that may arise. That concludes my remarks. I will now pass the call to Alan to provide a more thorough review of the company's financial results. Thank you, Charlie.

Net sales for our third quarter of fiscal twenty twenty one were $41,500,000 up over 18% from $35,000,000 in our second quarter of this year and 51% from $27,500,000 in the same period of the prior year. For the sixth consecutive quarter, our revenues exceeded $27,000,000 For the past three quarters, we have revenues in excess of $35,000,000 On a consolidated basis for the 2021, U. S. Sales were $17,000,000 or 41% of total revenues, and international sales were $24,500,000 or 59% of total revenues. This compares with U.

S. Sales of $14,200,000 or 52% of the total and international sales of $13,300,000 or 48 percent of the total in 2020. The geographic dispersion remains similar to that for the second quarter of this year. Year over year third quarter sales were up significantly over the prior year period as our business remains very well balanced and benefits from geographic diversification. Third quarter year over year sales among our major international operations were as follows: in The U.

K, 5,600,000.0 this year versus $2,400,000 last year Sales in Mexico more than doubled to $1,900,000 from $900,000 Sales in Asia were up 39% at $6,400,000 from 4,600,000.0 Sales in Canada were up over 60% at $4,200,000 from $2,600,000 last year. Latin America increased nearly 90% to 3,600,000 from 1,900,000.0 and sales in other foreign markets were up 120% at $2,700,000 from $900,000 a year ago. As compared to the second quarter of this fiscal year, U. S. And all international markets except China were higher in the third quarter due to COVID-nineteen sales.

As mentioned, sales for traditional industrial use by our mainstream customers were up from the second quarter when the pandemic shut down factories. Adding to our non COVID related sales was growth in our new product categories and our winning business from new customers for disposable and chemical product lines when they could not get supply from other manufacturers anywhere in the world. Now let's look at our product mix diversification. Disposables, which continues to be our largest product group, increased to 25,800,000 from $23,800,000 in the second quarter of this year and $12,500,000 in the third quarter of last year. Chemical suits were $9,700,000 from $6,200,000 in the second quarter of this year and $5,700,000 in third quarter of last year.

Both product groups benefited from organic growth, but the primary driver was COVID-nineteen demand. Fire products declined to $1,600,000 in third quarter of this year from $1,700,000 in second quarter of this year and $2,800,000 in third quarter of last year. Blows were $500,000 in '1, flat with the second quarter this year, but lower than $700,000 in the 2020. High visibility products of $1,400,000 was higher than $1,000,000 in 2021, but lower than 2020 of $2,200,000 And loan ins also were higher at $1,700,000 versus $1,300,000 in the 2021, but lower than $2,900,000 in the 2020. All of these markets reflect the COVID-nineteen impact on economic activity with the 2021 bottoming due to temporary closure of many industrial businesses, particularly in the automotive and transportation sectors and the oil and gas sector, which has remained under pressure due to the price of oil.

High Performance Wear, one of our newer product lines, contributed 740,000 to the third quarter fiscal twenty twenty one sales, up from $500,000 in this year's second quarter and $600,000 in the 2020. As was the case in the first half of the year, we believe PPE purchasing continues to be focused, if not refocused in the third quarter to pandemic efforts at the expense of certain traditional industrial usage. This pattern has appeared to ease during the third quarter with further improvement going into the fourth quarter. Moving to gross profits. Gross profit of 21,700,000 for the third quarter of this year increased by $12,400,000 dollars or 133% from $9,200,000 for the same period last year.

Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 52.3% for the fiscal twenty twenty one third quarter, a company record for any quarter and an increase of over 18 percentage points from 39.3% last year. As compared with the second quarter this year, when revenues were $35,000,000 and gross profit was $17,300,000 our third quarter gross margin increased by 2.8 percentage points. The key drivers for our gross margin improvement over the prior year period were fewer SKUs and longer operating hours leading to greater factory floor efficiencies, higher average selling prices, an increase in direct container sales and the inclusion and growth of our higher margin specialized product lines. As compared to the second quarter of this year, our third quarter gross margin benefited from even higher revenues and more direct container sales, which drove incremental manufacturing efficiencies. We have begun to resume production of a small amount of disposable and chemical SKUs or product variations that have been curtailed or eliminated in the first half.

More will be added back in during the fourth quarter and some thereafter, but we expect the reintroduction of these products to our manufacturing schedule will be metered and managed so that we emerge from COVID-nineteen with a rationalized product offering that preserves the majority of the manufacturing efficiencies that we've realized and the resultant impact on margins. Ultimately, we will offer fewer products than we did prior to COVID, and the majority of those eliminated are lower selling lines and less profitable products. All told, this streamlining has led to reduced customer lead times, more efficient and higher volume manufacturing, stronger gross margins and improved inventory turns. Similar to the first half of the year, we have been running our factories that make disposable and chemical products at near maximum capacity, a schedule of twelve hours per day and six days per week. As a result, during the third quarter, we were once again able to deliver products when our competitors, many of whom use third party contractors, could not.

Our ability to provide timely delivery of product enabled us to convert new customers to Lakeland products. During the second quarter, we saw many of these new customers place container sized orders for significant business that we believe may be captured in whole or in part going forward. In the third quarter, we experienced even more container direct container orders To accommodate the increased order flow as well as growth in newer, higher margin products and reintroduction of certain SKUs, we added nearly 100 staff members to our manufacturing facilities. Our factories have been reducing the amount of time when they are running at near maximum capacity during the fourth quarter. With our substantially higher sales volume and gross margin contributions, the leverage in our operating model drove substantial increases in profits and cash flow.

At the same time, we are committed to improvements throughout the organization, which includes ongoing expense management. OpEx increased due to higher sales and volume incentives resulting in greater sales commission, compensation expenses. Due to the higher container load shipments, freight out was reduced. We also had lower travel and marketing expenses from COVID related restrictions. Bad debt reserves were reduced while we incurred some higher professional services fees associated with the upgrade and extension of our ERP system, which helps improve our margins and efficiencies.

Operating expenses of $9,200,000 in our third quarter were up from $7,500,000 in the same quarter last year, with the most notable increase relating to a $700,000 noncash expense for recapture of stock based compensation dating back to 2018 grants. The company had previously reversed stock based compensation expense for equity awards that were granted in 2018 and prior years as it was estimated at the time that the company was not likely to meet the performance thresholds required for vesting. Based on FY 'twenty one performance today and associated benchmark achievements, this estimate was revised. And accordingly, the company recognized the stock option expense associated with these awards in the third quarter. Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales was 22.2 in our third quarter as compared with 21.7% for the second quarter this year and 27.2% for the same period last year.

Lakeland reported record third quarter operating profit of $12,500,000 as compared with $9,700,000 in the 2021 and $1,800,000 in last year's third quarter. Operating margins were 30.1% for our third quarter, up from 27.8% in our second quarter and 6.7 in the prior year. EBITDA margin, which excludes noncash expenses such as the catch up on stock based compensation, was 33.5% in our third quarter, up from 30.6% in our second quarter and 7% in the 2020. Free cash flow for the quarter grew to a record $12,600,000 up from $9,300,000 in our second quarter and $1,100,000 in the 2020. Overall, increased due to higher operating income.

Income tax expense consists of federal, state and foreign income taxes. With an income tax rate of 25.9%, our income tax expense was 3,200,000.0 in the '21, up from $423,000 for the 2020, and the tax rate was four point three percent and $700,000 in the 2020 with a tax rate of 36.3%. It is estimated that Lakeland's NOL for federal tax purposes will be fully utilized during FY 'twenty one. The estimated NOL for state purposes is estimated to be approximately $20,000,000 at 10/31/2020. The third quarter fiscal twenty twenty one net income was $9,300,000 or $1.16 per basic share and $1.14 per diluted share compared to net income of $1,100,000 or $0.14 per basic and diluted share in the prior year.

The improved results reflect higher sales and gross margin, expense management, enhanced operating efficiencies and factory utilization, all of which was partially offset by higher GAAP taxes and the noncash stock based compensation expense. The company had 8,019,980 basic shares outstanding at 10/31/2020. No shares were repurchased in the third quarter as part of the company's 2,500,000 stock buyback program approved on July 1936. To date, 1,700,000.0 has been spent to repurchase shares with approximately $800,000 remaining available under that buyback program. As of 10/31/2020, Lakeland had cash and cash equivalents of $40,200,000 up from $34,900,000 at 07/31/2020, and $14,600,000 at the beginning of fiscal twenty twenty one.

Inventories were $44,900,000 at 10/31/2020, marginally higher than at the beginning of the fiscal year. With an increase of raw materials of over $2,000,000 we had an ending inventory with $6,000,000 of finished goods product in transit. Upon conversion, we look forward to our cash balance further increasing. As compared to the beginning of the fiscal year, accounts receivable at the end of the 2021 increased by $9,200,000 due to higher sales as DSOs remained steady at approximately fifty three days. Accounts payable and accrued expenses increased by $5,200,000 from the beginning of the year, and shareholders' equity increased by $28,500,000 Total assets increased nearly $33,000,000 from $99,400,000 to $132,300,000 which also was an increase of nearly 13,000,000 from the end of second quarter fiscal twenty twenty one.

The company had no debt outstanding at 10/31/2020 and no borrowings on its $12,500,000 revolving credit facility with Bank of America. Working capital of $98,700,000 at 10/31/2020 was up from $86,600,000 at 07/31/2020 and $66,900,000 at the beginning of the fiscal year. The company's current ratio improved to 6.7 to one at October 31, up 8.9% from 01/31/2020. Capital expenditures were approximately $600,000 in the third quarter, up from $500,000 in the second quarter and $100,000 in the prior year period. CapEx for the year is expected to be approximately $2,000,000 as compared with $1,000,000 in fiscal twenty twenty and $3,100,000 in fiscal twenty nineteen.

The majority of our CapEx in the current fiscal year is for strategic capacity increases as needed, enhanced manufacturing efficiencies and extending the phased global rollout of our ERP system. On manufacturing infrastructure alone, our plans call for continued investments to increase production capacity of new product lines in Vietnam, India and Mexico. Expansions will be fungible between our primary product lines for disposable, chemical and critical environment, which supports our manufacturing resiliency and flexibility and complements existing methods of factory floor efficiencies aided by our ERP system and data centric planning processes. Outside of The U. S, our ERP system deployment will continue on a country by country basis among our larger international operations during the next twelve to twenty four months.

Thus, along with our top line growth initiatives, we expect to extract even greater profitability from our international operations, roughly half of our total business in the years ahead. In fiscal twenty twenty one, year to date, we generated $30,000,000 of free cash flow or 10x the amount from last year against the current enterprise value of about $120,000,000 This shows tremendous performance and value for our shareholders. We are incredibly proud of our expanding global team. While we had a really strong third quarter, we are poised for continued growth outside of COVID-nineteen while significantly benefiting from the pandemic as we continue to deliver for the global health care community as well as our industrial base of customers. This concludes my remarks.

I'll turn the call back to the operator to open the call to questions.

Speaker 0

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. And our first question is from Gerry Sweeney with ROTH Capital.

Speaker 2

Congratulations on a really nice quarter.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jerry.

Speaker 2

I wanted to start with maybe revenues or I should say production. Obviously, we're getting to a period where, I think by your commentary, we're seeing some pickup in more traditional industrial businesses, maybe the global economies are improving. And then but we still have a pretty strong demand for PPE. Is there a possibility that knowing that some of your competitors use third party manufacturing that some of these industrial products may be in limited supply if the economy keeps going back as they're focused on PPE?

Speaker 1

I think that is a possibility, Gerry, and it's one that I think that what is more likely to drive that to just I think the return of the industrial market in general will be additive. I think a greater contributor to that shortage is likely to be PPE stockpiling globally. There was an article just yesterday in The Wall Street Journal acknowledging that PPE stockpiles, at least in The US, have only attained a 50% level of what they're intended to have. And that's due largely to the continued surge in COVID so that, you know, as they're receiving in stockpile materials, they think that they're you know, they have enough. There's a hole in the bottom of the bucket where it's draining out only a little bit slower than it's coming in.

Speaker 2

Got it. So I think I understand PPE remains strong, but then you also just have improving demand on the industrial side for P and L. Get a longer overlap maybe.

Speaker 1

Right. Suspect that the declining COVID coming up over the next three quarters.

Speaker 2

Yes. Six months, twelve months. Yes.

Speaker 1

It is. And the rise of the industrial market are going to be almost inversely proportional to some degree.

Speaker 2

Got it. Have you turned away any business? Or have you been able to supply everybody? Because in the past, I know you had some guys that are just opportunistic coming in for equipment and may not be sticking around for longer periods or may not necessarily transition to longer term clients. I'm just curious as to how that is playing out with customers.

Are you turning some away or still capacity across the board?

Speaker 1

We turned some business away early on in Q1, early Q2. The the people that that we turned away, you know, know that we did for a reason. We are still staying with our original strategy, which is to service our industrial customers and fill COVID demand where we have excess capacity, we've been fortunate that we've been able to continue to expand that capacity by improved efficiency. And as a result, it's not that we've turned down industrial business, but there there are some, you know, stockpiling RFPs and other opportunities relative relatively large opportunities for COVID that we have elected not to pursue because of our commitment to our industrial accounts.

Speaker 2

Okay. Got it. One or two more quick questions just on gross margin side. Obviously, you got a few moving parts, low amount of SKUs, longer hours. The SKU size permanent longer hours is more flexible.

Higher selling price is probably more flexible, may not be the word, but I'm using it in mix. As we look forward and we see PPE maybe declining, industrial coming up, where can gross margin settle out? Or if you don't want to necessarily go there, which of those items that I just sort of mentioned are more sort of thought permanent versus maybe some of the other ones that made flex?

Speaker 1

I'm going to let Alan handle that. He's done the analysis on our margins. So as Charlie mentioned in his remarks, Jerry, some of the things that we're going to see on a permanent basis going forward, the benefits from the SKU reductions, the planning efficiencies, and basically the the kind of the core operational elements of our of our overall manufacturing process, you know, planning, distribution, etcetera. So those are the elements that that we're going to, you know, control and manage, you know, directly, you know, going forward. The elements around pricing are the ones that will be probably the more more of the challenge.

But, you know, as Charlie said before, you know, pricing is not gonna go back to pre pandemic levels in any of these product lines, just due to what we believe is going to be an overall increase in sustained demand for PPE going forward. So that's probably the biggest variable factor in the going forward impact on margins.

Speaker 2

Got it. That's really helpful. And just one other question. This is just for nuance, I guess. Direct container sales, higher margin, is that just direct sales to customers cutting out some distributors?

I just wanted to understand.

Speaker 1

No. The direct containers means that we don't bring it into our own distribution facility. The container is loaded in our manufacturing facility and shipped directly to the distributor or the customer. Got it. So we cut out a lot of the intermediate costs.

Speaker 2

Got it. That's helpful. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Speaker 0

And our next question is from Alex Fuhrman with Craig Hallum Capital Group.

Speaker 3

Great. Thanks very much for taking my question and congratulations on a really historic quarter. Wanted to drill down further on what you were talking about with gross margin. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you are starting to reintroduce some SKUs that had been temporarily curtailed. If you could talk a little bit more about that.

And do you think the company ever needs to get back to the full product assortment? Or will it still be a streamlined assortment going forward? And just kind of putting that together with pricing, just trying to understand those puts and takes, I guess, as you think about gross margin in sort of post pandemic time in the second half of next year.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 1

As far as SKUs, the biggest thing that we're doing is there are some underperforming SKUs that we've eliminated and we don't intend to ever bring back. Quite frankly, you know, part of our our the margin problems we had pre pandemic where we had some products that we were dragging behind us like dragging anchor. We we've got significant pickup in our margins. It's gonna be sustainable just by eliminating those products. You know, when I say that you know, anyway, that we're not going back, for instance, to manufacturing spun bond polypropylene.

I won't get into detail about it, but it doesn't really protect against anything. We have as a result of the the process of COVID nineteen, our sales force, I think, has come to grips with who our customer is and who is a good customer and who values reliable delivery. It it is the reliable delivery that we tend to protect most going forward because that is an attribute of your product that end users value and will pay for. So to the extent that SKU reduction makes our manufacturing more streamlined and reliable, that is a a major driver in our SKU selection.

Speaker 3

Okay. That's really helpful. Thank you for that. And then if I could ask about just your business outside The United States has obviously been tremendously strong really, it seems like all regions. I know Lakeland is obviously, that's not an accident.

You've made tremendous investments with your sales force in emerging markets. Can you talk a little bit about the competitive dynamics internationally in Europe, foreign markets? Do you have, I would assume, pretty big market share in some of those markets? Is the discussions around pricing or some of your growth, does that start to look different in Asia or South America or some

Speaker 1

of your other emerging markets

Speaker 3

that you've been growing quickly in?

Speaker 1

I wouldn't obviously, we have some markets where our market penetration initially is at a greater level. We don't have with the possible exception of China, I don't know that we have any market where or Canada is fully where we have the level of penetration that we have in The U. S. That said, Europe is definitely lower. South America is lower.

Southeast Asia and India are lower. I think that a large part of our pickup in those markets in the current quarter is reflective of the surge in Europe that came actually preceded our surge here in The U. S. A little bit. So we redirected, rechanneled manufacturing capacity to Europe.

And it's reflective of the fact that we started from a lower market penetration. The delivery problems that our customers have seen in The U. S. Are global. So we've picked up new customers in the foreign markets where they're just, quite frankly, are more of them that we are not already working with.

So I think that that's the primary driver in that growth. We're going to emerge from COVID-nineteen in foreign markets with better market penetration and better branding.

Speaker 3

Great. That's really helpful. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1

Yes, sir.

Speaker 0

And our next question comes from Mark Inbertsen, Private Investor. Thank you. I guess the biggest question for management at this point is, is what can be done for a higher multiple placed on the company, 6x on an annualized quarterly run rate for earnings of $4 plus a share, 20% plus market cap cash on the balance sheet. It seems like the marketplace just doesn't recognize the extreme low valuations of Lakeland at this point, which fair value just in the marketplace would be in the low to mid-30s a share. Is there any idea, any thought about increasing stock purchase program or a special dividend?

Thank you.

Speaker 1

On a on a regular basis, we have those discussions internally, and we have a number of things on the table. I think that, you know, as far as our multiple, I think that, in all honesty, I think Lakeland is carrying its history with it. You know, we have multiple years of relatively flat performance I'm not gonna go in through our entire history. We were very well positioned for COVID to hit.

And when I say that, not just positioned for COVID, but prior management did a very good job of building up our balance sheet so that we were poised for an accelerated growth rate relative to our history with or without COVID. COVID has accelerated that, And, you know, I think, you know, this is really our third quarter of significant improvement. You know, I think that there's a certain amount of the market waiting to see if we can sustain it post COVID. I think when we show that, I think we'll see the multiples you're talking about. But aside from that, we're not relying on that completely.

We are looking at, you know, uses of capital. I don't want to get into too much detail with regard to that, but suffice it to say that we want to make sure that we deploy that very wisely. Okay. You guys are doing a

Speaker 2

great job. I hope the market recognizes the management performance sometime soon.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 0

That was our final question.

Speaker 2

So I'd like to turn

Speaker 0

the floor back over to you, Mr. Robertson.

Speaker 1

Thank you. We appreciate your participation on Lakeland's fiscal twenty twenty one third quarter financial results conference call. As we look ahead to the balance of fiscal twenty twenty one, we continue to be well positioned as the new standard of excellence for PPE manufacturers anywhere in the world. Thank you again for joining us on today's conference call, and have a nice day.