Lifetime Brands recently reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31. According to the report, consolidated net sales were $113.4 million, compared to consolidated net sales of $110.9 million for the corresponding period the year prior. In constant currency, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, consolidated net sales increased $5.5 million, or 5.1%, compared to consolidated net sales in the corresponding period the prior year.

The company’s loss from operations was $1.9 million in the 2017 first quarter, compared to a loss of $5.2 million for the corresponding period in 2016. Net loss was $1.3 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $4.3 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, in the corresponding period in 2016.  Adjusted net loss was $1.5 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to a loss of $3.4 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, in the corresponding period in 2016.

“Lifetime’s excellent first quarter results were in line with our expectations and reflect the ability of our portfolio of businesses to perform well in a challenging and rapidly evolving retailing environment,” said Jeffery Siegel, chairman and CEO. “Our investments in a first-class ecommerce team and systems over the last several years have enabled us to take advantage of the increasing penetration of online sales and to offset the impact of lower store traffic and soft consumer spending at traditional brick and mortar retail. We are pleased that we made these investments early, as the cost of playing catch-up in the world of ecommerce is extremely high. We intend to continue to upgrade our IT and distribution systems to be able to capitalize on this continuing shift in consumer spending. 

“We already are beginning to see the strategic and financial benefits of a number of initiatives designed to accelerate our growth and improve our profitability. Lifetime Next™ is an important strategic program designed to assure that every part of our U.S. business is aligned with our goals. Conceived in late 2015 and implemented beginning in mid-2016, this program is expected to result in higher gross margins, reduced SG&A expenses per dollar of sales and a more optimal level of working capital. We already have realigned a number of our divisions, reorganized our sales organization, reduced management layers, simplified processes and relocated several key product engineering positions from the United States to Asia.

“We also are undertaking major improvements to our infrastructure, including plans now underway to relocate our West Coast distribution center to a new purpose-built leased facility that will be operational in early 2018 and to consolidate our European distribution into a new efficient warehouse location that we expect to be completed in 2019.

“At year-end, we merged our UK businesses, Creative Tops and Kitchen Craft, to form Lifetime Brands Europe. We already have successfully integrated the management of these companies and are working toward transitioning Kitchen Craft onto the Creative Tops SAP platform.

“When fully implemented, we expect these improvements to result in $10-$13 million of additional annual pre-tax profit, excluding the impact of additional revenue growth. While some of the benefits of these initiatives already are apparent, we expect to realize the full impact of these initiatives over the next 18-24 months.”

For more information, visit www.lifetimebrands.com.