“It has been an excellent start to the year for Rocky Brands as we delivered a strong first quarter performance and completed a highly transformative acquisition. We experienced robust demand for our Rocky, Georgia and Durango brands across our wholesale and direct to consumer channels, which when combined with an easier comparison due to the impact on our business from COVID-19 in the year ago period, resulted in a dramatic improvement in revenue and earnings per share. The multi-year initiatives we’ve been executing in product innovation, fulfilment, consumer engagement and inventory management enhanced our ability to capture market share during the pandemic while creating a strong foundation to support long-term growth”, commented Jason Brooks, President and Chief Executive Officer.

First Quarter Review

First quarter net sales increased by 57.3% to 87.7 million US dollars compared with 55.7 million US dollars in the first quarter of 2020. First quarter 2021 net sales include 6.5 million US dollars in net sales from the performance and lifestyle footwear business acquired from Honeywell International, Inc. on the 15^th of March 2021.

Wholesale sales for the first quarter increased by 69.1% to 59.2 million US dollars compared to 35.0 million US dollars for the same period in 2020. Retail sales for the first quarter increased by 42.0% to 24.0 million US dollars compared to 16.9 million US dollars for the same period last year. Military segment sales for the first quarter totalled 4.4 million US dollars compared to 3.8 million US dollars in the first quarter of 2020.

Rocky Brands reported first quarter net income of 4.5 million US dollars, or 0.61 US dollars per diluted share compared to net income of 1.2 million US dollars, or 0.16 US dollars per diluted share in the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2021, was 8.7 million US dollars, or 1.19 US dollars per diluted share, compared to an adjusted net income of 2.0 million US dollars, or 0.27 US dollars per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2020.