Cannondale’s sales up, losses lessened, but loan covenants broken

For the three months ended March 30, 2002, net sales were $39,167,000, a $6,531,000, or 20 percent, increase over the $32,636,000 recorded for the same period last year.

It was the motorsports line which powered the uplift: $8,183,000 revenues during the third quarter of fiscal 2002 compared to $1,737,000 for the third quarter of fiscal 2001.

The remainder of the sales increase for the third quarter of fiscal 2002 (of $861,000) was down to US bike sales.

However, this was offset, said a Cannondale statement, by an unfavorable foreign exchange impact of approximately $776,000 on international bicycle sales.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2002, net sales were $111,104,000 compared to $104,010,000 for the same period last year, reflecting an increase of $7,094,000, or 7 percent, during the current year. For the year-to-date period, motorsports sales grew 356 percent to $14,503,000, compared to sales of $3,180,000 for fiscal 2001.

The net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2002 was $2,245,000 compared to the net loss of $5,351,000 recorded during the prior-year quarter. For the first nine months of fiscal 2002, the net loss was $9,774,000 compared to the net loss of $17,549,000 recorded during the prior year period.

However, Cannondale’s bike business continued to be profitable in the third quarter of fiscal 2002 with pre-tax income of $1,632,000, a 192 percent increase over the bicycle business pre-tax income of $559,000 for the third quarter of fiscal 2001. The increase in third quarter pre-tax profits resulted from significantly stronger bicycle margins, which increased to 35.0 percent for the third quarter of fiscal 2002 from 30.4 percent in the prior-year quarter as a result of production efficiencies and more favourable product mix, said Cannondale.

In February, Cannondale was not in compliance with certain financial covenants contained in the financing agreements with Tyco Capital Corporation and Ableco Finance LLC but the US manufacturer is currently trying to amend these covenants, and is considering refinancing proposals from other lenders.