Florida-based Superior Group of Companies (NASDAQ: SGC), parent firm of Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431), announced its 2018 sales ended on December 31 increased by 29.8% to $346.4 million. In Q4, the company’s net sales rose by 31.1% to $95 million, strengthened by BAMKO, which posted fourth quarter organic net sales growth of 32%. Superior said its total promo products segment grew 68% to $24 million in the fourth quarter, offsetting other areas of its business that didn’t close 2018 as well.

Michael Benstock, Superior Group CEO

“I’m particularly pleased with the performance of BAMKO and [remote staffing segment] Office Gurus,” said Michael Benstock, Superior’s CEO. “While the fourth quarter performance of our uniform segment was below our expectations, we’ve made tremendous progress on the integration of our uniform businesses within our Superior Group of Companies. We’re aggressively developing avenues to leverage our expanded product assortment and service lines within the segment to meet and exceed our existing customers’ expectations and to gain market share.”

Overall, Superior’s revenue results raced past the forecasts of analysts, while reported Q4 earnings per share of $0.30 fell short of industry estimates by about $0.04. Net income for the fourth quarter was $4.6 million compared to $1.9 million in Q4 2017. Notably, the company said, its net income in Q4 of 2017 was reduced by approximately $4 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, because of the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

In Superior’s earnings statement, Benstock added that his firm remains “on schedule with the integration of our ERP systems that, once completed, will allow us to maximize cost efficiencies throughout our operations. I’m quite satisfied with our progress in these areas and am confident in the overall trajectory of our uniform business as we enter 2019.”

Superior also reported that on January 22, 2019 it restructured its May 2, 2018 credit agreement with a lender. The restructuring trimmed the principal amount of the loan to $65 million, using $20 million of proceeds under a revolving credit facility, lowered the variable interest rate to LIBOR plus 85 basis points and extended the maturity date from May 2020 to January 2026.

“We’re quite pleased with the restructuring of the term loan,” said Michael Attinella, CFO at Superior. “We’re confident that the combined cash flow from operations and liquidity provided from the revolving credit facility is more than ample to fund our strategic plan as we move into 2019 and beyond.”

In its most recent listing, Counselor ranked Superior’s BAMKO as the 25th largest distributor in the industry, with reported 2017 sales of $79.9 million.