A ‘rebound’ for True Temper

True Temper’s net income for the full year 2005 increased $19.6 million, to a net loss of $0.5 million from a net loss of $20.1 million in 2004.
In his comments about the Company’s performance, Scott Hennessy, President and CEO said, “This past year certainly represented a rebound for True Temper, and to some extent the overall golf industry. In contrast to 2004, we saw some clearing of the wholesale and retail inventory channels, and a number of significant new product launches from our OEM partners.
“These market forces combined with several key sales initiatives at True Temper helped to drive revenue to a new full year record of $117.6 million. Internally, we saw a continued shift in the sales mix of our steel golf shafts sold towards more premium, high performance products. While on the graphite golf side of our business we delivered significant increases in unit volume as a result of our successful branded line of Grafalloy ProLaunch shafts, and the execution of our penetration strategy into the stock OEM distribution channel. “This penetration strategy was made possible by the successful establishment of our new graphite shaft manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, China.”
Commenting about the company’s outlook for the future, Mr. Hennessy said, “We are encouraged about the outlook for 2006, especially in the back half of the year as many of the exciting new products from True Temper and our OEM partners are scheduled for second half launches this year. We also feel that the significant growth in our graphite golf business during 2005 will carryover and continue in 2006.
“In addition, the momentum gained in our performance sports division, specifically in the hockey and cycling areas, should continue to build throughout each quarter of 2006. During the first half of 2006 we expect these positive factors to be mitigated somewhat by the launch timing and inventory channel management of some of our key global OEM partners. While we are driving for revenue improvement each quarter, the near record levels achieved in the first and second quarters of 2005 certainly make for challenging targets in 2006.”
True Temper www.truetemper.com