•  Net Sales $50.9 Million · Gross Margin 47.1% (+ 130 Basis Points)
•  E-commerce Sales $24.5 Million -- Traditional Sales $26.4 Million
•  Operating Cash Flow of $18.1 Million

COLUMBIA, Mo., March 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- American Outdoor Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ Global Select: AOUT), an industry leading provider of products and accessories for rugged outdoor enthusiasts, today announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 ended January 31, 2023.

Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Highlights

• Quarterly net sales were $50.9 million, a decrease of $19.2 million, or 27.4%, compared with net sales of $70.1 million for the comparable quarter last year. E-commerce channel net sales of $24.5 million declined 30.8% from the comparable quarter last year, resulting primarily from reduced demand in the Shooting Sports category. Despite the year-over-year decline, e-commerce net sales benefitted from a 37.5% increase in direct-to-consumer sales, which are primarily in the Outdoor Lifestyle category, and which include sales resulting from the acquisition of Grilla Grills. Traditional channel net sales of $26.4 million declined 23.9% from the comparable quarter last year, reflecting the impact of lower foot traffic at retail and retailers' efforts to reduce their overall inventory levels, as well as lower shooting sports sales to OEM customers. Compared with pre-COVID levels in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, total net sales grew 17.4%, while e-commerce channel net sales grew by 53.9% and traditional channel net sales declined by 3.7%.
• Quarterly gross margin was 47.1%, an increase of 130 basis points, compared with quarterly gross margin of 45.8% for the comparable quarter last year.
• Quarterly GAAP net loss was $2.9 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, compared with net income of $3.8 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the comparable quarter last year.
• Quarterly non-GAAP net income was $1.7 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $7.4 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, for the comparable quarter last year. GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments for net income exclude acquired intangible amortization, stock compensation, technology implementation, stockholder cooperation agreement costs, and facility consolidation costs. For a detailed reconciliation, see the schedules that follow in this release.
• Quarterly Adjusted EBITDAS was $3.3 million, or 6.4% of net sales, compared with $10.5 million, or 15.0% of net sales, for the comparable quarter last year. For a detailed reconciliation, see the schedules that follow in this release.

Brian Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "In the third quarter, we addressed ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment while remaining focused on the future, investing in our long-term growth, managing the elements within our control, and delivering a number of important operational and financial achievements."

"While net sales in our third quarter declined year-over-year as retailer destocking initiatives and consumer challenges persisted, they grew 17.4% over pre-pandemic levels.  Our direct-to-consumer business, which largely consists of our Outdoor Lifestyle brands, delivered year-over-year growth of over 37%.  We consider our direct-to-consumer sales to be one gauge of how well our brands are resonating with consumers, since those sales are not typically impacted by retailers' inventory levels or limited open-to-buy dollars.  Our direct-to-consumer sales also include sales of MEAT! Your Maker meat processing equipment and Grilla outdoor cooking products, which are sold exclusively, direct-to-consumer, and which, together, generated over 14% of our total net sales and helped our Outdoor Lifestyle category generate 55.6% of our total net sales in the quarter and growth of 39.1% over the pre-pandemic third quarter of fiscal 2020.  Innovation remains a key element in our long-term strategy, and new products launched within the past two years generated nearly 24% of our third quarter net sales. Our Dock & Unlock™ process continues to fuel innovation, and during the quarter we launched an array of internally developed new products, most of which incorporate proprietary features, and that together represent opportunities to enter new product categories and expand our product lines and distribution channels."   

"While we address the dynamics of the current environment, we continue to invest in our long-term strategy, which includes leveraging our business model.  During the quarter, we expanded the lease at our Columbia, Missouri headquarters and distribution center, effective January 1, 2024.  The agreement will provide us full use of the building's 632,000 square feet of warehouse and office space, and we believe it offers us a potential opportunity to enhance operational efficiencies in the near-term by optimizing the consolidations we have completed over the past six months.  It also provides us with additional capacity, a benefit that aligns with our long-term plan to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions.  Furthermore, during the quarter, we took the final steps in our ERP implementation and move to Microsoft D365, a platform that we expect to yield enhanced capabilities and improved analytics as we grow.  After the close of the quarter, we successfully went live with D365, as planned, and on budget.  The success of this important, strategic initiative is due to the hard work and dedication of our ERP implementation team and employees across the organization."

Andrew Fulmer, Chief Financial Officer, said, "We continued to fortify our balance sheet in the third quarter, demonstrating effective capital deployment while making important strategic investments to support future growth.  With robust operating cash flow in the quarter of $18.1 million, including an inventory reduction of $5.9 million, we paid down $10.0 million on our line of credit and repurchased over $1.8 million of our stock.  We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $21.7 million and only $10.0 million outstanding on our line of credit." 

"Turning to our outlook, we believe that our brands remain well-positioned to capitalize on positive, long-term consumer outdoor participation trends. However, we also believe that retailers and distributors remain cautious regarding their inventory levels and that consumer spending patterns are likely to remain challenging in the short-term.  As a result, we now believe that our net sales for fiscal 2023 could exceed pre-pandemic fiscal 2020 net sales by as much as 13%. We also believe our solid financial position enables us to continue executing on our long-term strategic plan as we invest in our business, return capital to stockholders, and address the exciting growth opportunities we have identified for our company," concluded Fulmer.

Conference Call and Webcast
The Company will host a conference call and webcast today, March 9, 2023, to discuss its third quarter fiscal 2023 financial and operational results. Speakers on the conference call will include Brian Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Andrew Fulmer, Chief Financial Officer.  The conference call may include forward-looking statements and a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures. The conference call and webcast will begin at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time). Those interested in listening to the conference call via telephone may call directly at (833) 630-1956 and ask to join the American Outdoor Brands call.  No RSVP is necessary.  The conference call audio webcast can also be accessed live on the Company's website at www.aob.com, under the Investor Relations section.

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In this press release, certain non-GAAP financial measures, including "non-GAAP net income and "Adjusted EBITDAS" are presented. A reconciliation of these and other non-GAAP financial measures are contained at the end of this press release. From time-to-time, the Company considers and uses these non-GAAP financial measures as supplemental measures of operating performance in order to provide the reader with an improved understanding of underlying performance trends.  The Company believes it is useful for itself and the reader to review, as applicable, both (1) GAAP measures that include (i) amortization of acquired intangible assets, (ii) stock compensation, (iii) facility consolidation costs, (iv) technology implementation, (v) acquisition costs, (vi) stockholder cooperation agreement costs, (vii) income tax adjustments, (viii) interest expense, (ix) income tax benefit/expense, and (x) depreciation and amortization; and (2) the non-GAAP measures that exclude such information. The Company presents these non-GAAP measures because it considers them an important supplemental measure of its performance and believes the disclosure of such measures provides useful information to investors regarding the Company's financial condition and results of operations. The Company's definition of these adjusted financial measures may differ from similarly named measures used by others. The Company believes these measures facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period by eliminating potential differences caused by the existence and timing of certain expense items that would not otherwise be apparent on a GAAP basis.  These non-GAAP measures have limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the Company's GAAP measures.  The principal limitations of these measures are that they do not reflect the Company's actual expenses and may thus have the effect of inflating its financial measures on a GAAP basis. 

About American Outdoor Brands, Inc.
American Outdoor Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ Global Select: AOUT) is an industry leading provider of outdoor products and accessories, including hunting, fishing, camping, shooting, outdoor cooking, and personal security and defense products, for rugged outdoor enthusiasts.  The Company produces innovative, top quality products under its brands BOG®; BUBBA®; Caldwell®; Crimson Trace®; Frankford Arsenal®; Grilla Grills®; Hooyman®; Imperial®; LaserLyte®; Lockdown®; MEAT!; Old Timer®; Schrade®; Tipton®; Uncle Henry®; ust®; and Wheeler®.  For more information about all the brands and products from American Outdoor Brands, Inc., visit www.aob.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, and we intend that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbor created thereby. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained or incorporated herein by reference in this press release, including statements regarding our future operating results, future financial position, business strategy, objectives, goals, plans, prospects, markets, and plans and objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "targets," "contemplates," "projects," "predicts," "may," "might," "plan," "would," "should," "could," "may," "can," "potential," "continue," "objective," or the negative of those terms, or similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specific forward-looking statements in this press release include our belief that the expansion of the lease at our Columbia, Missouri headquarters and distribution center will offer us a potential opportunity to enhance operational efficiencies in the near-term by optimizing the consolidations and our belief that the expansion positions us with additional capacity, a benefit that aligns with our long-term plan to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions; our expectation that the move to Microsoft D365 will yield enhanced capabilities and improved analytics as we grow; our belief that the D365 implementation is on budget; our belief that our brands remain well-positioned to capitalize on positive, long-term consumer outdoor participation trends; our belief that retailers and distributors remain cautious regarding their inventory levels and that consumer spending patterns are likely to remain challenging in the short-term; our belief that our net sales for fiscal 2023 could exceed pre-pandemic fiscal 2020 net sales by as much as 13%; our belief our solid financial position enables us to continue executing on our long-term strategic plan, as we invest in our business, return capital to stockholders, and address the exciting growth opportunities we have identified for our company. We caution that these statements are qualified by important risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the effects of the COVID-19, pandemic, including potential disruptions in our ability to source the materials necessary for the production of our products, disruptions and delays in the manufacture of our products, and difficulties encountered by retailers and other components of the distribution channel for our products; economic, social, political, legislative, and regulatory factors; lawsuits and their effect on us; inventory levels, both internally and in the distribution channel, in excess of demand; natural disasters, pandemics, seasonality, news events, political events, and consumer tastes; future investments for capital expenditures; future products and product development; the features, quality, and performance of our products; the success of our strategies and marketing programs; our market share and factors that affect our market share; liquidity and anticipated cash needs and availability; the supply, availability, and costs of materials and components and related tariffs; our ability to maintain and enhance brand recognition and reputation; risks associated with the distribution of our products and overall availability of labor; and, other factors detailed from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2022.

Contact: 
Liz Sharp, VP, Investor Relations
lsharp@aob.com
(573) 303-4620

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SOURCE American Outdoor Brands, Inc.