Xcel Brands Reports Q4 Revenue of $8.1M, EPS of ($0.35), Expects Growth Across Its Businesses In 2022 Driven By Livestream Shopping

Xcel Brands Inc (NASDAQ:XELB) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021.

Robert W. D'Loren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xcel commented, “We are pleased with our top-line growth across our businesses and distribution channels especially our DTC businesses that are all now fully powered by our robust livestreaming platform. We expect sales in our wholesale and DTC businesses to continue to accelerate well beyond current growth rates and believe that these sales will return the company to profitability in 2022. The investments that we have made in technology, livestreaming, supply chain management and people are now benefitting the company greatly.”

Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results

Total revenue was $8.1 million, an increase of $0.6 million or 8% compared to the prior year quarter, primarily driven by significant growth in the Company’s wholesale and direct to consumer businesses.

Net loss attributable to Xcel Brands was approximately $6.9 million, or ($0.35) per share, compared with a net loss of $10.4 million, or ($0.54) per share, for the prior year quarter. This improvement from prior year quarter was primarily attributable to lower asset impairment charges in the current quarter. After adjusting for certain cash and non-cash items, results on a non-GAAP basis were a net loss of approximately $4.6 million, or ($0.23) per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, and a net loss of approximately $0.3 million, or $(0.02) per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $3.5 million and positive $0.2 million for the current quarter and the prior year quarter, respectively.

Full Year 2021 Financial Results

Total revenue was $37.9 million, an increase of $8.5 million of 29% from prior year, driven by higher product sales and higher licensing revenues of $6.9 million and $1.6 million, respectively. As with the quarter’s results, the increase in revenues was primarily driven by significant growth in the Company’s wholesale and direct to consumer businesses. Full-year licensing revenues also increased, primarily attributable to the April 2021 acquisition of the Lori Goldstein brand.

Net loss attributable to Xcel Brands was approximately $12.2 million, or ($0.63) per share, compared with a net loss of $12.9 million, or ($0.68) per diluted share, for the prior year. The current year net loss and improvement from the prior year results reflects the increase in revenues discussed above, partially offset by higher interest and finance expenses and lower income tax benefit, while total operating costs and expenses decreased only slightly from prior year. After adjusting for certain cash and non-cash items, non-GAAP net loss for the year ended December 31, 2021, was approximately $6.2 million, or $(0.32) per share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $1.8 million, or $0.10 per diluted share in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $2.5 million and positive $4.1 million for the current year and prior year, respectively. Despite strong fundamentals and top line revenue growth, we had a challenging fourth quarter caused by a fire in one of our retail partners distribution centers and other logistics issues that had an impact on our operating results for the 4^th quarter and materially impacted our expected results for 2021. We believe that the impact of the fire and related and general logistics issues are abating.

See reconciliation tables below for non-GAAP metrics. These non-GAAP metrics may be inconsistent with similar measures presented by other companies and should only be used in conjunction with our results reported according to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Any financial measure other than those prepared in accordance with GAAP should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The Company's balance sheet at December 31, 2021 reflected stockholders' equity of approximately $75 million, cash and cash equivalents of approximately $4.5 million, and working capital, exclusive of the current portion of lease obligations, of approximately $7.9 million.

Conference Call and Webcast
The Company will host a conference call with members of the executive management team to discuss these results with additional comments and details at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday , April 14, 2022. A webcast of the conference call will be available live on the Investor Relations section of Xcel's website at www.xcelbrands.com. Interested parties unable to access the conference call via the webcast may dial 1-877-407-3982. A replay of the conference call will be available on the Company website for 30 days following the event and can be accessed at 844-512-2921 using replay pin number 13729080.

About Xcel Brands
Xcel Brands, Inc. (XELB) is a media and consumer products company engaged in the design, production, marketing, live streaming, wholesale distribution, and direct-to-consumer sales of branded apparel, footwear, accessories, fine jewelry, home goods and other consumer products, and the acquisition of dynamic consumer lifestyle brands. Xcel was founded in 2011 with a vision to reimagine shopping, entertainment, and social media as one thing. Xcel owns the Isaac Mizrahi, Judith Ripka, Halston, LOGO by Lori Goldstein, and C. Wonder brands, and it owns and manages the Longaberger brand through its controlling interest in Longaberger Licensing LLC, pioneering a true omni-channel sales strategy which includes the promotion and sale of products under its brands through interactive television, digital live-stream shopping, brick-and-mortar retail, and e-commerce channels. The company’s brands have generated in excess of $3 billion in retail sales via live streaming in interactive television and digital channels alone. Headquartered in New York City, Xcel Brands is led by an executive team with significant livestreaming, production, merchandising, design, marketing, retailing, and licensing experience, and a proven track record of success in elevating branded consumer products companies. With an experienced team of professionals focused on design, production, and digital marketing, Xcel maintains control of product quality and promotion across all of its product categories and distribution channels. Xcel differentiates by design. www.xcelbrands.com

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including statements regarding future events, our future financial performance, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. We have attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including "anticipates," "believes," "can," "continue," "ongoing," "could," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "appears," "suggests," "future," "likely," "goal," "plans," "potential," "projects," "predicts," "seeks," "should," "would," "guidance," "confident" or "will" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our anticipated revenue, expenses, profitability, strategic plans and capital needs. These statements are based on information available to us on the date hereof and our current expectations, estimates and projections and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including, without limitation, the risks discussed in the "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and its other filings with the SEC, which may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risk factors, nor can we address the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason.

For further information please contact:

Andrew Berger
SM Berger & Company, Inc.
216-464-6400
andrew@smberger.com

Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted EPS are non-GAAP unaudited terms. We define non-GAAP net income as net income (loss) attributable to Xcel Brands, Inc. stockholders, exclusive of amortization of trademarks, stock-based compensation, loss on extinguishment of debt, gain on sales of assets, gain on reduction of contingent obligations, costs (recoveries) in connection with potential acquisitions, certain adjustments to the provision for doubtful accounts related to the bankruptcy of and economic impact on certain retail customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, asset impairments, and deferred income taxes. Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted EPS measures do not include the tax effect of the aforementioned adjusting items, due to the nature of these items and the Company’s tax strategy.

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP unaudited measure, which we define as net income (loss) attributable to Xcel Brands, Inc. stockholders, before depreciation and amortization, interest and finance expenses (including loss on extinguishment of debt, if any), income taxes, other state and local franchise taxes, stock-based compensation, gain on reduction of contingent obligations, gain on sale of assets, costs (recoveries) in connection with potential acquisitions, asset impairments, and certain adjustments to the provision for doubtful accounts related to the bankruptcy of and economic impact on certain retail customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Management uses non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA as measures of operating performance to assist in comparing performance from period to period on a consistent basis and to identify business trends relating to our results of operations. Management believes non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA are also useful because these measures adjust for certain costs and other events that management believes are not representative of our core business operating results, and thus these non-GAAP measures provide supplemental information to assist investors in evaluating our financial results. The Company incurred certain costs during the prior year which it could have eliminated but elected not to do so in light of $1.8 million of government assistance received through the Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act (the “PPP Benefit”) Benefit”), which represents a cash benefit directly related to the Company’s operating expenses incurred. Accordingly, the PPP Benefit is not considered a reconciling item for purposes of the computation of non-GAAP net income and Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA is the measure used to calculate compliance with the EBITDA covenant under our term loan agreement.

Non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to net income, earnings per share, or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Given that non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA are financial measures not deemed to be in accordance with GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, our non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies, including companies in our industry, because other companies may calculate these measures in a different manner than we do. In evaluating non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we may or may not incur expenses similar to some of the adjustments in this document. Our presentation of non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA does not imply that our future results will be unaffected by these expenses or any unusual or non-recurring items. When evaluating our performance, you should consider non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, and Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including our net income and other GAAP results, and not rely on any single financial measure.