Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) reported its third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings, revealing a miss on earnings per share (EPS) expectations, while revenue met forecasts. The EPS came in at $0.38, below the anticipated $0.43, leading to a stock decline of 2.08% during the regular trading session. However, the company's revenue of $44.3 million aligned with projections. The stock closed at $23.08, reflecting investor concerns over the earnings miss.
Key Takeaways
- Lakeland Industries' EPS of $0.38 missed the forecast of $0.43.
- Revenue matched expectations at $44.3 million for the quarter.
- The stock fell by 2.08% following the earnings announcement.
- Strong growth in the fire services segment, up 245% year-over-year.
- Lakeland's international sales accounted for 66% of total revenue.
Company Performance
Lakeland Industries demonstrated robust year-over-year growth, with net sales increasing by 45% to $45.8 million in the third quarter. Despite missing EPS expectations, the company saw significant expansion in its fire services segment, which grew by 245% compared to the previous year. The company's international presence remains strong, with sales from outside the U.S. comprising 66% of total revenue.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: $45.8 million, a 45% increase year-over-year.
- EPS: $0.38, down from the forecasted $0.43.
- Gross profit: $18.6 million, up 39% year-over-year.
- Net income: $100,000, or $0.01 per diluted share.
- Adjusted EBITDA: $4.7 million, a 4.9% increase year-over-year.
Earnings vs. Forecast
Lakeland Industries' EPS of $0.38 fell short of the $0.43 forecast, marking a 11.6% miss. This performance contrasts with previous quarters where the company had either met or exceeded expectations, indicating a significant deviation this time.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings release, Lakeland Industries' stock price decreased by 2.08%, closing at $23.08. This decline reflects investor disappointment with the EPS miss. The stock remains within its 52-week range, having previously reached a high of $26.1 and a low of $14.08.
Company Outlook
Looking ahead, Lakeland Industries has set a revenue guidance of at least $165 million for fiscal year 2025, with an adjusted EBITDA target of at least $18 million. The company anticipates shipping 80% to 90% of its LHD multi-year backlog in the fourth quarter and is exploring expansion into decontamination services.
Executive Commentary
CEO Jim Jenkins highlighted the company's growth trajectory, stating, "Our visibility of high single-digit organic growth communicated on our last call has come to fruition in Q3 of fiscal 2025." CFO Roger Shandy added, "We expect 80% to 90% of that multi-year backlog to ship before the end of our fiscal year." Jenkins also emphasized the company's commitment to its customers, saying, "Our customers are heroes and we never take that trust for granted."
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the inventory accounting adjustments related to recent acquisitions and the expected timeline for shipping the LHD backlog. Management also discussed potential service opportunities in new geographic markets.
Risks and Challenges
- Supply chain disruptions could impact production and delivery schedules.
- Market saturation in key regions may limit growth opportunities.
- Fluctuating foreign exchange rates could affect profitability.
- Increased operating expenses from recent acquisitions may pressure margins.
- Competitive pressures in the fire services sector could challenge market positioning.
Full transcript - Lakeland Industries Inc (LAKE) Q3 2025:
Conference Call Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Lakeland Industries Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on a listen only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions and comments following the presentation. During today's call, we may make statements relating to our goals and objectives for future operations, financial and business trends, business prospects and management's expectations for future performance that constitute forward looking statements under federal securities law. Any such forward looking statements reflect management's expectations based upon currently available information and are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties that are more fully described in our SEC filings. Our actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward looking statements.
We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or developments after the date of this call. On this call, we will also discuss financial measures derived from our financial statements that are not determined in accordance with U. S. GAAP, including adjusted EBITDA, excluding FX and adjusted EBITDA, excluding FX margin. A reconciliation of each of the non GAAP measures discussed on this call to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is presented in our earnings release.
A press release detailing these results crossed the wire this afternoon and is available in the Investor Relations section of our company's website, ir. Lakeland.com. At this time, I would like to introduce your host for this call, Lakeland Industries President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman, Jim Jenkins and Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, Roger Shandy. Mr. Jenkins, the floor is yours.
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the results of our fiscal 2025 Q3 ended October 31, 2024. For those of you new to the Lakeland story and our strategy, we are a global manufacturer of personal protective equipment, apparel and accessories with a head to toe portfolio of premium fire service brands and mission critical industrial PPE. Our management team is implementing strategies to accelerate growth and margins within the global fire turnout gear and industrial PPE markets with an acquisition focus on the fragmented fire industry. Near term, our strategy is to leverage a leading market position in fire protection, premium brands and accretive M and A to accelerate profitable growth in the higher margin $2,000,000,000 fire protection sector in the largest global markets.
Our long term strategy is to grow both our fire services and industrial PPE verticals with our strategically located company owned capital light model focusing on operating and manufacturing efficiencies to achieve higher margins with positioning to grow faster than markets served. These strategies and this experienced management team's execution of them are translating into strong financial performance with fiscal year 2025 guidance equating to at least 28% year over year top line growth with positioning for mid to high single digit organic growth ahead. We are well capitalized with a strong balance sheet and expanding free cash flow growth to fund our fire services acquisition strategy and initiatives above current guidance. Importantly, our tenured new management team has successfully executed a similar strategy to Lakeland's, a turnaround and efficiency focus with accretive acquisitions and synergies to accelerate growth and create value. Lakeland Fire and Safety's mission critical product portfolio includes North American and globally certified turnout gear, safety helmets, fire boots, particulate blocking hoods and fire gloves for our fire services segment.
Our industrial segment includes a wide range of high quality safety products, including chemical suits, PPE and disposable coveralls, high performance FRAR and woven garments and safety boots. This slide shows our global head to toe fire services portfolio comprised of 5 premium brands that combine, operate and serve our customers on a global scale. Fire products are available globally through strategic distribution partners across 78 countries with a focus in the 3 largest reasonable markets for firefighter turnout gear: North America, Germany and Australia. Additionally, our Eagle brand has a strong presence in the Middle East as does LHD in Asia. The 3rd quarter was marked by robust sales led by our head to toe fire services segment to a growing geographic customer base with a 61% sequential and 2 45 percent year over year increase.
Our focus on this segment is driven by a growing global market with a highly fragmented competitor set without a dominant player. Fire service business has better visibility and margins as compared to other segments and we believe Lakeland can become a top 3 competitor through our strong family of brands, acquisition strategy and superior lead times and customer service. Overall, the quarter met our expectations as robust organic and inorganic fire services growth was supported by a rebound in U. S. Sales and ongoing European, Asian and Latin American growth, As well, expanding opportunities in Latin America, new sales leadership in Asia and an expected large fire services shipment in Europe contributed to our results.
To summarize, we saw strong net sales in the Q3, increasing 45 percent to $45,800,000 led by a 2 45% increase in fire services products. Gross profit increased 39 percent to $18,600,000 due to strong revenue growth and organic margin improvement. We remain confident in our growth strategy and expanding market opportunities in fire services and industrial safety products. Our commitment remains unwavering and I'm excited about the remainder of this fiscal year. Looking ahead to fiscal 2025, based on our existing backlog and our outlook for the remainder of the year, we are maintaining guidance for our 2025 fiscal year.
Please note that these expectations include the announced Jolly Boots, Pacific Helmets and LHD Group acquisitions. We remain confident in our global sales platforms and ability and earning ability for the last quarter of the year and we are reaffirming expectations for fiscal year 2025 revenue of at least 165,000,000 dollars Additionally, we reaffirm our expectations for fiscal year 2025 adjusted EBITDA, excluding FX, to be at least $18,000,000 With that, I'd like to pass it over to Roger to cover our financial results and provide an outlook for the rest of the year.
Roger Shandy, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, Lakeland Industries: Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. Looking at our 3rd fiscal quarter of 2025, Lakeland delivered sales of $45,800,000 compared to $31,700,000 for the Q3 last year. Organic revenue comprised 70 5 percent of our total sales. 25 percent of our Q3 revenue came from our recent acquisitions. On a consolidated basis, for the Q3 of fiscal year 2025, domestic sales were $15,400,000 or 34 percent of total revenues and international sales were $30,400,000 or 66 percent of total revenues.
This compares with domestic sales of $15,100,000 or 48 percent of the total and international sales of $16,600,000 or 52% in the Q3 of fiscal 2024. During the Q3 of fiscal 2025, the company saw sales growth in North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Organic revenue increased 7.3% to $34,000,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 compared to $31,700,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2024, showing the results of a focus on efficiency. Gross profit for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 was $18,600,000 an increase of $5,200,000 or 38.9 percent compared to $13,400,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 20 20.5. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales decreased to 40.6 percent for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 from 42.2% in the Q3 of fiscal 2024.
Gross margin performance declined in the Q3 of fiscal 2025 due to lower margins from LHD and Jolly, particularly driven by the amortization of the step up in basis of acquired inventory and higher inbound freight expense in anticipation of 4th quarter sales. Organic gross margins increased by 200 basis points to 44.2% for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 compared to 42.2 percent for the Q3 of fiscal 2024. Operating expenses increased by $8,000,000 or 82.5 percent from $9,700,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2024 to $17,700,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2025. Operating expenses increased due to inorganic growth, acquisition expenses, non recurring expenses and increased organic SG and A operating expenses, primarily professional fees. Operating profit was $800,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 compared to an operating profit of $3,600,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2024 due to the previously mentioned impacts.
Operating margins were 1.8% for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 compared to 11.4% for the Q3 of fiscal 2024. Net income was $100,000 or $0.01 per diluted earnings per share for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 compared to net income of $2,600,000 or $0.34 per diluted share for the Q3 of fiscal 2024. Adjusted EBITDA excluding FX for the Q3 of fiscal year 2025 was $4,700,000 an increase of $200,000 or 4.9 percent compared to $4,500,000 for the Q3 of fiscal 2024. The increase in adjusted EBITDA excluding FX was driven primarily by margin improvement in our organic sales mix and contributions from Jolly and LHD, partially offset by higher SG and A expenses. On a trailing 12 month basis, Lakeland's TTM revenue as of Q3 of fiscal 2025 is $151,800,000 This is an increase of $29,400,000 or 19 percent versus the Q3 FY2024 TTM revenue total of $122,400,000 a trailing 12 month basis, Lakeland's TTM adjusted EBITDA excluding the impacts of FX as of Q3 of fiscal 2025 was $14,700,000 This is an increase of $500,000 or 3.4 percent versus Q3 FY 2020 4 GTM adjusted EBITDA excluding FX total of 14,200,000 dollars On Slide 10, we provide additional details driving the year over year changes in our gross margin percentage and adjusted EBITDA excluding FX.
Reviewing our performance, while we saw significant growth overall revenue growth overall, we continue to face some challenges that impacted our results, yet we remain confident in our full year projections. In the Q2, both Jolly and Eagle had substantial fire orders delayed to the late 3rd and 4th quarters. These orders began shipping in Q3 and further contributed to our results. Sales results from our recent acquisition LHD, which we acquired on July 1, has resumed and we are accelerating production in anticipation of delivering on multi year back orders in the 4th quarter. Revenues for LHD, Jolley and Pacific helmets were a combined $11,400,000 and we expect those to accelerate as we deliver on open orders and new cross selling opportunities.
Looking at our organic business, we were again very encouraged by the growth in our Latin American operations with a 20% increase in sales year over year. LATAM now represents 11% of total sales and they continue to grow. Our outstanding LATAM team is continually identifying and capitalizing on new market opportunities and we expect further growth in that region. We're working to expand our fire services offering in LatAm and we expect to introduce new industrial products from the Latham portfolio into that region going forward. We've also recently put our Mexico sales operations under our Latin American management team and we were optimistic that they can replicate their success in that country.
Even so, our Q3 sales in Mexico were up 25% year over year. We also saw double digit sales growth year over year in Asia. We're very excited about the new sales leadership that we've put in place in Asia and we are encouraged by the growth we're seeing in both China and new Asian markets outside of China. Our European revenue including Eagle, Jolly and our recently acquired LHD business grew by $11,200,000 or 3 50 percent to $14,400,000 We see very good sales opportunities in Europe and are committed to its growth trajectory. Following the slowdown in the Q2 due to our line drive transition, we were pleased to see our U.
S. Revenue rebound to 15,400,000 driven by the continued growth in our Lakeland Fire Service business. While our year over year U. S. Revenue growth was $300,000 or 2%, our quarter over quarter U.
S. Revenue growth was $3,000,000 or 25%. Regarding product mix for the Q3, our fire services business grew $13,700,000 or 2 45% versus the same period last year, driven by our recent LHT acquisition and organic gains in the U. S. And from Eagle as we start to see gains from our head to toe strategy.
Our industrial product lines grew $300,000 or 1.1 percent over the same period last year, led by our chemical products and high performance wear, which grew 9% 8%, respectively, while high biz decreased 33% year over year. Disposables represented 27% of the revenue for the quarter, while fire grew to 42% and chemical was 11%. The remainder of our industrial products, including FRAR high performance and high vis accounted for 19% of sales. Now turning to the balance sheet. Lakeland ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $15,800,000 and long term debt was $31,100,000 This compares to $24,900,000 in cash and $29,500,000 in long term debt as of July 31, 2024.
The decrease in cash was primarily due to the build of inventory to deliver on the LHD multi year backlog and Q4 sales orders at Jolly as well as ramping industrial orders and $3,400,000 of debt repayment during the year. The net increase in our long term debt was mainly related to the acquisition of LHD Group in July, partially offset by the previously mentioned repayments on our credit facility. Net cash used in operating activities was $12,500,000 in the 9 months ended October 31, 2024, compared to net cash provided of $3,700,000 in the 9 months ended October 31, 2023. The increase was driven by increases in working capital of $12,500,000 primarily due to a build in inventory in preparation for forecasted increase in sales in the 4th fiscal quarter of 2025 and the Q1 of fiscal 2026. Capital expenditures were $1,500,000 for the 9 months ended October 31, 2024, primarily for manufacturing equipment.
At the end of Q3, inventory was $72,700,000 up from $67,900,000 at the end of Q2 FY 2025, primarily due to LHD, Dolly, Eagle and organic sales expected to shift in the 4th fiscal quarter of 2025 and the Q1 of fiscal 2026. Year over year, we saw a reduction in our organic inventory of $1,700,000 versus the quarter ended October 31, 2023. With that overview, I would like to turn the call back over to Jim before we begin taking questions.
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Thank you, Roger. I'll conclude by saying that our visibility of high single digit organic growth communicated on our last call has come to fruition in Q3 of fiscal 2025. This was demonstrated by strong net sales growth driven by a significant 61 percent sequential and 2 45% year over year increase in our fire services line and rebounding global growth across Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is now clear based on these results and our reaffirmed outlook that there are 3 main themes progressing very well with our near term and long term strategy. First, we believe our time to market in fire services is faster than anyone else with respect to our competition and this is driving strength in our business.
2nd, we are well positioned in the 3 largest global fire markets. And third, our head to toe fire offering coupled with the highly competitive delivery speed to customers is a disruptive differentiator for our global sales team. And because of this, we believe we are positioned to take market share. As Roger previously mentioned, mostly all of our financial metrics are trending in the right direction from our legacy business and we believe our recent acquired entities are also turning the corner as we begin to implement cross selling opportunities, negotiate favorable terms with vendors and consolidate operations to position the business towards cash generation. We are now seeing those strategies bear fruit and the visibility in subsequent quarters is bright.
The working capital deployed in the 3rd quarter is primarily due to inventory buildup and preparation for forecasted increases in sales in the Q4 of the year and the Q1 of fiscal 2026. It couldn't be a better time to be part of the Lakeland story as the foundation building realigned management and global sales teams are now positioned to drive growth, market share penetration, cash generation and most importantly, shareholder value. We look forward to seeing more to sharing more on our developing story next week at the ROTH 13th Annual Deer Valley Institutional Conference and Benchmark Company 13th Annual Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) 1 on 1 Investor Conference. With that, we will now open the call for questions. Operator?
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Thank
Conference Call Operator: Our first question comes from the line of Gerry Sweeney with ROTH Capital. Please proceed with your question.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Good afternoon, Jim and Roger. Thanks for taking my call.
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Hey, Gerry.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: So first question, it's probably going to be a little bit longer winded in-depth, but I think you'll understand where we're going with this. So we had the U. S. Rebounding, Jolley and Eagle are starting to get the legs underneath them. But then we also have your guidance $165,000,000 of revenue $18,000,000 of EBITDA.
Obviously, I think there's confidence going into the Q4, everything's going in the right direction. But it appears that either your revenue guidance of $165,000,000 will have to be far exceeded or margins will have to jump up significantly in the Q4 to get that $18,000,000 of EBITDA. And I know there's a step up in basis of inventory, etcetera. So could you give us a little bit more maybe granularity as to how we achieve this guidance with all these operations and everything accelerating into year?
Roger Shandy, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, Lakeland Industries: Sure, Gary. This is Roger. You recall in Q2, we talked about the negative impact to our gross margins and to EBITDA of this profit in the inventory due to the inventory builds that we have coming particularly out of Vietnam and China. And our expectation is over the second half of the year as the inventory reduced that that profit in any inventory would be released.
Conference Call Operator: In
Roger Shandy, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, Lakeland Industries: Q3, we did turn inventory on the shipments and the recovery in revenue. But at the same time, our plants continue to operate very efficiently and produce really kind of that high levels of capacity for these orders that we still have visibility to. So because of that, there actually was no release of profit in ending inventory for the Q3. It didn't hurt us like it did last quarter, but there was no benefit from it either because what was moved through sales of this inventory in Q3 was offset almost directly by the build of inventory. Given that, what we do see in Q4 as we have visibility to these orders that are shipping, we are expecting a significant release of that profit in the inventory in Q4, which will, in effect to what you just said, increase that margin.
So it will be the revenue that we're expecting, still some very large orders in Q4, including this multiyear backlog at LHD, because what we see from production from our facilities, we expect to release of a significant part of that profit in the inventory, which will be accretive to EBITDA.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Got it. And if this is fair to say, all this inventory adjustments and releases, this is pure accounting because of the acquisitions you made, correct? So what I'm really trying to say is on an apples to apples basis, by the time you get all this released, we should see a cleaner, clearer margin. It's just being reallocated to different quarters. Is that fair?
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Yes. I mean, Jerry, as you know, when you do these acquisitions, there's a lot of financial white noise that's sort of there for a while. And then once you clear yourself through that, I had this experience at Transcat (NASDAQ:TRNS), you sort of clear yourself through some of this stuff and then there's a level of normalcy that returns.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Got it. And that's what I assumed. I just wanted to sort of shine a light on it. So that's what I expected
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: to hear.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: So I was hoping to hear it and expect it. Separately, Line Drive, obviously, 2Q, there was my words, not your words, but maybe a little bit of friction in transitioning over the Line Drive agreement. How is that playing out on a before basis?
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Very well. Pipeline continues to grow. Performance quarter over quarter has improved. Our sales regional salespeople are meeting with line drives regional salespeople weekly. There's a discipline that our Global VP of Industrial Sales has brought to that relationship.
Our business development leader has also been pushing quite aggressively, and I've been very pleased with what he's been doing as well. So I couldn't we were a little disappointed in that Q1 kickoff with them, but we're starting to really starting to see some momentum now.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Got it. That's fair. And then one more question, I'll jump in line. Obviously, fire turned out to be a big opportunity, U. S, I believe, the biggest market.
I know you're looking at getting bigger into in the U. S. Any thoughts on that or stay tuned?
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Yes, we have I think we've said this before, we're actively pursuing opportunities in the United States. We continue to run that out, Jerry.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Got it. Okay, that's fair. All right. I'll jump back in line. Thanks, guys.
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Thank you, Jerry.
Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Galinko with Maxim. Please proceed with your question.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe firstly, can you just give us a little bit more color around the multiyear backlog from the acquired name? Is it something that you think you could flush through predominantly this year? Is it something that you're working through well into next year? And I know we talked about this last quarter, but how much of it is still addressable to you?
Roger Shandy, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, Lakeland Industries: Yes, Matt, it's Roger. Thanks for the question. So we were pleased with the I guess kind of the beginning of shipments, the start of shipments from LHD. LHD Australia did particularly well as did Hong Kong. If you recall from our previous conversations that LHD Germany was essentially doing nothing because they were in some financial distress.
They were cash in advance or worse with vendors. And this multi year, as you mentioned multi year backlog had developed. So in the Q3, as you saw with our cash balances and our working capital, for Germany, there was a very fast ramp and a significant ramp of inventory build and production orders that are going on as we speak. We do still expect to ship those a large percentage in the Q4. Right now, we're thinking that we'll be shipping 80% to 90% of that multi year backlog in Q4.
And again, that gives us a high level of confidence in our Q4 revenue number. And as importantly, the inventory will again start to come back down. And as we make that sale and collect on those receivables that will again turn back into cash. So, the team is working very hard on it with legacy LHD, third party manufacturers as well as new parties that we brought on for my relationships. And it was a matter of just really basically having to jumpstart them and bring them kind of back to life.
And we also didn't mention this in the script or in the comments, but in the quarter, we made a very significant hire at LHD. I think there were some posts about it, but we brought an individual back, Klaus Hauercap, to be General Manager. He had worked for the company about 10 years ago. He'd left to go to the largest competitor in Germany and had been responsible for a very significant growth in their business. He saw Lakeland's acquisition and we were able to work with him on a return and he started November 1, taking back over there.
So again, we expect 80% to 90% of that backlog to ship before the end of our fiscal year.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Got it. Thank you. And my follow-up is, I guess, on the opportunity around services and bringing that into more of your geographic reach, is that something that you can see sort of being comprehensive with in the next fiscal year or is it going to take a little bit longer to work your way through those opportunities?
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: So Matt, I think it so we've already begun to look at, I think I said this on the last call, sort of the greenfielding or purchasing folks in that that are in that space. I know that in LatAm, for example, our LatAm leader is putting together a business case to run out a decontamination services business in that market. She's been interacting, actually had a visit to Australia to meet with the Australian LHD people. So I think we will start seeing incremental gains in the service area for us. I can't really tell you at this point how much or how significant that's going to be in fiscal 'twenty six, but I can tell you that it's rapidly becoming a priority because to be a leader in this space because it is the future of this business, making sure that folks that are running into harm's way both in just in the fire environment, but also are getting those contaminants on their protective gear need to be protected.
And there's I can tell you in Europe and in Germany in particular, what I'm learning is that doing that correctly is important because there's actually criminal liability associated with brigade commanders in Germany who don't do this correctly, don't have it done correctly. So it's a growth area for us and we're trying to seize on those opportunities. I just can't give you a number or it would be a pure guesstimate at this point, but I know that that is something we are it's an imperative to us for next year to start running out.
Gerry Sweeney, Analyst, ROTH Capital: Perfect. Thank you.
Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of the question and answer session. Now I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Jenkins for closing remarks.
Jim Jenkins, President, CEO, Executive Chairman, Lakeland Industries: Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us on today's call. I would also like to thank our customers and distributor partners worldwide for trusting us with your lives and safety. Our customers are heroes and we never take that trust for granted. I also want to thank our Lakeland team members across the company for their continued commitment and enthusiasm as we further delivered on our strategic initiatives this quarter.
Lakeland continued to experience significant growth and change during this quarter and I appreciate the hard work from our dedicated team as we continue to execute our growth strategies. If you're we are unable to answer any of your questions today, please reach out to our IR firm MZ Group who would be more than happy to assist.
Conference Call Operator: And this concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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