February 23, 2017
Superior Uniform Group Reports Sales Rise
Florida-based Superior Uniform Group Inc. (asi/339857), whose holdings include distributor BAMKO (asi/131431), has announced its 2016 net sales were $252.6 million, a year-over-year increase of 20.1%. Fourth-quarter revenues jumped 21.6% to $64.7 million.
“Results like these are only possible through the hard work and disciplined focus of our teams,” said Superior CEO Michael Benstock. “We also laid the groundwork for long-term future success by strengthening our competitive position and broadening our growth prospects. We opened a new factory in Haiti to improve our competitive position, and we completed our new call center facility in El Salvador that essentially triples our capacity there.”
Net income at Superior for 2016 was $14.6 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, the company said, versus $13.1 million, or $0.90 per diluted share, for the prior year. As a result of its acquisition of BAMKO last March, Superior’s 2016 net income “was negatively impacted by $1.1 million in pre-tax acquisition related expenses.” Net income in Q4 2016 was $4.4 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, compared to net income of $3.4 million or $0.23 per diluted share in Q4 2015.
With its specialty in uniforms and remote staffing, Superior expanded its offerings in promotional products in the BAMKO deal. At the time of the purchase, Benstock told Counselor that Superior wanted to become “a dominant player” in the promo products space. Prior to last March, Superior had been searching for two years to find a business partner to help the firm expand into the promo market, Benstock said.
Going forward, over the next three to five years on average, Superior is forecasting overall growth of about 8%. More specifically, the firm said it expects organic growth of above 6% in its uniform segment, at least 15% growth in its promo products business, and gains of about between $3 million and $3.5 million in its remote staffing services. “We intend to supplement our organic growth with acquisitions in the promotional products segment each year while continuing to pursue acquisitions in the uniform segment as they become available,” the company said.