By Staff Report Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

Athletic shoemaker K-Swiss stumbled into another large loss in the second quarter as its worldwide sales plummeted by almost one-third. The Westlake Village-based company reported an $11.6 million loss, compared to a loss of $20 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Worldwide revenue fell 31.5 percent to $44.8 million during the quarter. U.S. sales were down 42.1 percent to $18.8 million and international sales dropped 20.9 percent to $26 million.
K-Swiss has struggled for years to expand its footwear line beyond the staid classic white tennis shoe for which it is known. It has not reported an annual profit since 2008.

“The past several years, domestic K-Swiss has suffered from declining future orders and sales. We have been aggressively addressing these trends with new product initiatives,” K-Swiss Chairman and President Steven Nichols said in an earnings release. “While there was a positive impact from these initiatives in our June 30, 2012 backlog, it was not evident due to the declining trends in the overall domestic business.”

He said the company is starting to see some “positive results” from its first-quarter 2012 future orders. Worldwide future orders shipping during July and December are up 21. 8 percent to $70.3 million, the company said.

For the full year, K-Swiss said it expects revenues of between $215 million and $220 million, down from $268.4 million last year.

K-Swiss shares fell 1 percent to $2.92 after the earnings announcement.