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2024 TEXT
TEXT
2024 Shareholder Letter In 2024, Lifetime Brands demonstrated resiliency relative to the fluidity of the retailer and customer end markets, resulting in full-year financial performance that was in line with our revised 2024 expectations. The economic factors that act as drivers for Lifetime s business are consumer demand and confidence, and the year s persistent inflation in goods, coupled with an inflationary environment, produced consumer headwinds, which impacted retailer sales volumes within the industry. Throughout the year, our team remained focused on executing across several of our core strategic initiatives that created growth in select channels, particularly e-commerce, club retailers, and the dollar store channel, while we grew our gross margins. Additionally, predicated on the shift to a normalized supply chain environment, we ve established a stable base in costs of goods and expect to begin the implementation of our program to move the majority of our manufacturing from China into alternate regional locations. We determined that this positioning would be beneficial in terms of potential tariffs/trade regulations anticipated in 2025. Despite the tepid consumer and retailer market, in 2024 Lifetime held true to our history of leading market positions and sustainable operating results in any market. The first quarter of 2025 ushered in updated economic policy projections in the Federal Reserve s path of higher for longer interest rates, a new administration with notable business and corporate-related policies, that due to the economic impact and pace of change, require significant corporate planning, and geopolitical concerns that remain a potential macroeconomic factor. With Lifetime s decades of operating experience, we have constructed a tightly controlled playbook that enables swift pivots to market factors, which we believe allow our portfolio of brands to remain competitive in the marketplace. We entered the year supported by the fundamental strength embedded in our model of consistent cash flow generation, a defensive strategy designed to mitigate the impact of tariffs, and an attractive M&A market that provides a broad range of strategic opportunities to accelerate our growth beyond 2025, ultimately creating value for our shareholders. This past year, we ve operated Lifetime s business to capitalize on new and expanded channel penetration, and continue to pursue opportunities that we perceive as strategic for long-term sustainable growth. Our most prominent 2024 successes are as follows: Launched / operationalized Dolly Parton brand partnership. The launch of our Dolly Parton-branded new product pipeline at Dollar General was a successful milestone. With products developed across four of our product lines, shipments commenced in April 2024 in advance of our originally stated timeline. This partnership proved to be a historical launch for Lifetime with $7 million in incremental sales from the first phase of the program with Dollar General. Additionally, with this partnership, Lifetime strategically expanded its lineup of sales channels into the dollar channel, which reaches an incremental cohort of consumers where they shop, to drive sales growth and expand market share for Lifetime products. Dolly Parton-branded products are a tangible example of new product development as a core competency of Lifetime and a competitive advantage. We ve successfully launched these new products across several product lines, utilizing the strong brand equity of Dolly Parton. The second program with Dollar General shipped in the first quarter of 2025, and we anticipate meaningful growth in 2025 compared to 2024. Additionally, we have solidified listings and will be launching Dolly Parton products in several other major retail chains in 2025. Invested in our e-commerce strategy a key strategic priority in 2024. As our go-to-market strategy is predicated on meeting the consumer where they shop, we ensured that our e-commerce go-to-market program in 2024 was firmly in position to support our customers. We successfully capitalized on this channel, which is reflected in our year-over-year growth of 22% for Amazon Prime Day and our overall e-commerce sales growth of 4.2%, accelerating by 4Q24 sales growth of 9% from the prior year period. Our proactive strategy to expand and penetrate the e-commerce space was verified by datapoints on retail spending throughout the year, culminating in U.S. holiday retail sales as reported by MasterCard Spending Pulse data and Visa s Retail Spend Monitor data, where online retail sales grew 6.7% and 7.1% year-over-year, respectively. For the full year 2024, e-commerce sales were 20.2% of total sales.
Grew our revenues and market share in cutlery. Combined with performance of our brands in their core market positions, we expanded our presence in cutlery in 2024 with a highly successful launch of the Build-a-Board line of products. This expanded growth in our cutlery category by over 14% compared to the prior year. We expect this highly successful product extension to continue to drive positive performance of our cutlery products in 2025. Efficient financial profile + poised for M&A. In 2024, we affirmed our internal target to de-lever our balance sheet through our strong cash flow generation. Since we have successfully executed a reduction in our debt to our goal, and maintained this metric in a range of 3x-4x over the last two years at this leverage ratio, we believe we have ample, accessible liquidity that allows Lifetime the flexibility to pursue our long-established and proven M&A strategy with a focus on market share gain. In 2024, our rigorous due diligence of acquisition targets uncovered financial or operational performance that lacked suitability for Lifetime s standard of providing immediate incremental revenue, margin, or strategic growth. We will continue to pursue selective acquisition candidates that will create long-term value and margin expansion. We find it noteworthy that our diligence practices this past year validate this, that multiples are rationalizing, which are forecasts for future attractive M&A opportunities. Firmly established Lifetime s commercial food service segment. Securing new licensing agreements and brand expansion with premium glassware brands Royal Leerdam and ONIS was a 2024 highlight for the Mikasa Hospitality portfolio as we gain traction towards achieving our projected revenue target of $60 million in our food service business within the next five years. We ve strategically invested in growth in order to gain market share through our established network partners with initiatives focused on developing a complete front-of-house product line in parallel with our fully developed back-of-house smallwares products to compete with the large market players. While in the early stages, we believe our 2024 investments to expand and grow this business will position Lifetime to grow our front-of-house food services business in 2025. Launched transformation of international business segment. Lifetime s international business segment has performed short of expectations for several years, a result of poor end-market demand and legacy products and partnerships that were not profitable. There has been much transformational success of this business, but it remains notably unprofitable as there exists poor end-market conditions coupled with an insufficient revenue base to support the existing, albeit streamlined, infrastructure. We have begun a process to bring this business to near term profitability through a combination of growth and cost effectiveness. Some promising results were seen in 2024 as the last two quarters saw growth in revenues and profitability. Revenues grew 4% for the full year, driven by the last two quarters of 2024, with an acceleration to 7.2% growth in the fourth quarter, while contribution margin grew 5.5% for the full year, driven again by the last two quarters, with nearly a 64% increase in contribution in the fourth quarter compared to prior year. Driving this growth has been a revised product offering with meaningfully higher gross margins and a direct go-to-market strategy, which has achieved new listings focused on larger national retailers rather than the traditional focus of this business segment, which had been independent retailers. Retailers such as Dunelm and Next in the United Kingdom, Carrefour and E. Leclerc, and Edeka in Germany, and Imerco in Denmark have fueled this performance, which contributed to a gross margin increase of 11.4% in the fourth quarter and 3% for the full year 2024. I began this letter with mention of the start of 2025, which has encountered shifting policy considerations requiring agility and adaptation by businesses. As Lifetime has decades of experience navigating public markets, our management team began implementing actions in 2024 that we considered as both defensive and offensive positioning for 2025, with the goal of maximizing our potential earnings and seeking to minimize our exposure to event risk. Mitigating our exposure to China was a success, as we have shifted production to several geographies, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and India, while we concurrently reached full production capacity in our previously announced Mexico plastics facility. Additional defensive positioning measures were taken in early November to reduce risk exposure to tariff increases. These measures ensure we remain a dependable partner to meet our customers demand while providing a buffer to allow time for Lifetime to implement longer term measures, including the shifting of production outside of China and the implementation of comprehensive price increases on affected products.
Lifetime 2025 is evolving into a renewed company, though we remain rooted with discerning financial controls, dependable strong cash flow, and a disciplined approach to organic and inorganic growth. In a look at the 2025 agenda, we are excited to announce that Lifetime will host an investor day to reintroduce Lifetime 2025, where we expect to update the investment community on our near- and long-term strategic priorities to remain competitive, gain market share, and provide an updated three-year financial outlook. I am proud of the dedication and agility of the Lifetime team. Importantly, despite sluggish global economic conditions which have prompted headwinds as it relates to our retail customers and end customer dynamics, there is a collective resolve to continue to innovate and win in a competitive market. We look to 2025 as a strategically transformative year for Lifetime. I d like to extend my deep appreciation to our employees, partners, customers, and dedicated shareholders for their continued confidence in Lifetime s business, vision, and distinct embedded value. Solidified by our infrastructure of recognized, tangible brands, we are prioritizing resource allocation to a larger pool of customers and strategic category and channel cross sell opportunities. With our data-driven approach focusing on market analytics to add depth of innovation and catalyze sales, combined with our resilient and efficient business model and a healthy balance sheet, we are eager to unveil our new endeavors in 2025 and another year of strong strategic execution to unlock the intrinsic value of Lifetime. Robert B. Kay Chief Executive Officer
 • shareholder letter icon 4/25/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 • stockholder letter icon 4/27/2023 LCUT Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon 4/25/2024 LCUT Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon More "Consumer Goods" Category Stockholder Letters
 • Benford's Law Stocks icon LCUT Benford's Law Stock Score = 92


LCUT Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

2024
TEXT

TEXT

2024 Shareholder Letter
In 2024, Lifetime Brands demonstrated resiliency relative to the fluidity of the retailer and customer end markets, resulting
in full-year financial performance that was in line with our revised 2024 expectations. The economic factors that act as
drivers for Lifetime   s business are consumer demand and confidence, and the year   s persistent inflation in goods, coupled
with an inflationary environment, produced consumer headwinds, which impacted retailer sales volumes within the industry.
Throughout the year, our team remained focused on executing across several of our core strategic initiatives that created
growth in select channels, particularly e-commerce, club retailers, and the dollar store channel, while we grew our gross
margins. Additionally, predicated on the shift to a normalized supply chain environment, we   ve established a stable base
in costs of goods and expect to begin the implementation of our program to move the majority of our manufacturing from
China into alternate regional locations. We determined that this positioning would be beneficial in terms of potential
tariffs/trade regulations anticipated in 2025. Despite the tepid consumer and retailer market, in 2024 Lifetime held true to
our history of leading market positions and sustainable operating results in any market.
The first quarter of 2025 ushered in updated economic policy projections in the Federal Reserve   s path of higher for
longer interest rates, a new administration with notable business and corporate-related policies, that due to the economic
impact and pace of change, require significant corporate planning, and geopolitical concerns that remain a potential
macroeconomic factor. With Lifetime   s decades of operating experience, we have constructed a tightly controlled playbook
that enables swift pivots to market factors, which we believe allow our portfolio of brands to remain competitive in the
marketplace. We entered the year supported by the fundamental strength embedded in our model of consistent cash flow
generation, a defensive strategy designed to mitigate the impact of tariffs, and an attractive M&A market that provides a
broad range of strategic opportunities to accelerate our growth beyond 2025, ultimately creating value for our shareholders.
This past year, we   ve operated Lifetime   s business to capitalize on new and expanded channel penetration, and continue
to pursue opportunities that we perceive as strategic for long-term sustainable growth. Our most prominent 2024
successes are as follows:
Launched / operationalized Dolly Parton brand partnership. The launch of our Dolly Parton-branded new product
pipeline at Dollar General was a successful milestone. With products developed across four of our product lines, shipments
commenced in April 2024 in advance of our originally stated timeline. This partnership proved to be a historical launch for
Lifetime with $7 million in incremental sales from the first phase of the program with Dollar General. Additionally, with this
partnership, Lifetime strategically expanded its lineup of sales channels into the dollar channel, which reaches an
incremental cohort of consumers    where they shop,    to drive sales growth and expand market share for Lifetime products.
Dolly Parton-branded products are a tangible example of new product development as a core competency of Lifetime and
a competitive advantage. We   ve successfully launched these new products across several product lines, utilizing the strong
brand equity of Dolly Parton. The second program with Dollar General shipped in the first quarter of 2025, and we anticipate
meaningful growth in 2025 compared to 2024. Additionally, we have solidified listings and will be launching Dolly Parton
products in several other major retail chains in 2025.
Invested in our e-commerce strategy   a key strategic priority in 2024. As our go-to-market strategy is predicated on
meeting the consumer where they shop, we ensured that our e-commerce go-to-market program in 2024 was firmly in
position to support our customers. We successfully capitalized on this channel, which is reflected in our year-over-year
growth of 22% for Amazon Prime Day and our overall e-commerce sales growth of 4.2%, accelerating by 4Q24 sales
growth of 9% from the prior year period. Our proactive strategy to expand and penetrate the e-commerce space was
verified by datapoints on retail spending throughout the year, culminating in U.S. holiday retail sales as reported by
MasterCard Spending Pulse data and Visa   s Retail Spend Monitor data, where online retail sales grew 6.7% and 7.1%
year-over-year, respectively. For the full year 2024, e-commerce sales were 20.2% of total sales.

Grew our revenues and market share in cutlery. Combined with performance of our brands in their core market positions,
we expanded our presence in cutlery in 2024 with a highly successful launch of the Build-a-Board line of products. This
expanded growth in our cutlery category by over 14% compared to the prior year. We expect this highly successful product
extension to continue to drive positive performance of our cutlery products in 2025.
Efficient financial profile + poised for M&A. In 2024, we affirmed our internal target to de-lever our balance sheet through
our strong cash flow generation. Since we have successfully executed a reduction in our debt to our goal, and maintained
this metric in a range of 3x-4x over the last two years at this leverage ratio, we believe we have ample, accessible liquidity
that allows Lifetime the flexibility to pursue our long-established and proven M&A strategy with a focus on market share
gain. In 2024, our rigorous due diligence of acquisition targets uncovered financial or operational performance that lacked
suitability for Lifetime   s standard of providing immediate incremental revenue, margin, or strategic growth. We will continue
to pursue selective acquisition candidates that will create long-term value and margin expansion. We find it noteworthy that
our diligence practices this past year validate this, that multiples are rationalizing, which are forecasts for future attractive
M&A opportunities.
Firmly established Lifetime   s commercial food service segment. Securing new licensing agreements and brand expansion
with premium glassware brands Royal Leerdam   and ONIS   was a 2024 highlight for the Mikasa Hospitality portfolio as we
gain traction towards achieving our projected revenue target of $60 million in our food service business within the next five
years. We   ve strategically invested in growth in order to gain market share through our established network partners with
initiatives focused on developing a complete front-of-house product line in parallel with our fully developed back-of-house
smallwares products to compete with the large market players. While in the early stages, we believe our 2024 investments to
expand and grow this business will position Lifetime to grow our front-of-house food services business in 2025.
Launched transformation of international business segment. Lifetime   s international business segment has performed
short of expectations for several years, a result of poor end-market demand and legacy products and partnerships that were
not profitable. There has been much transformational success of this business, but it remains notably unprofitable as there
exists poor end-market conditions coupled with an insufficient revenue base to support the existing, albeit streamlined,
infrastructure. We have begun a process to bring this business to near term profitability through a combination of growth
and cost effectiveness. Some promising results were seen in 2024 as the last two quarters saw growth in revenues and
profitability. Revenues grew 4% for the full year, driven by the last two quarters of 2024, with an acceleration to 7.2% growth
in the fourth quarter, while contribution margin grew 5.5% for the full year, driven again by the last two quarters, with nearly
a 64% increase in contribution in the fourth quarter compared to prior year. Driving this growth has been a revised
product offering with meaningfully higher gross margins and a direct go-to-market strategy, which has achieved new
listings focused on larger national retailers rather than the traditional focus of this business segment, which had been
independent retailers. Retailers such as Dunelm and Next in the United Kingdom, Carrefour and E. Leclerc, and Edeka in
Germany, and Imerco in Denmark have fueled this performance, which contributed to a gross margin increase of 11.4%
in the fourth quarter and 3% for the full year 2024.
I began this letter with mention of the start of 2025, which has encountered shifting policy considerations requiring agility
and adaptation by businesses. As Lifetime has decades of experience navigating public markets, our management team
began implementing actions in 2024 that we considered as both defensive and offensive positioning for 2025, with the goal
of maximizing our potential earnings and seeking to minimize our exposure to event risk. Mitigating our exposure to China
was a success, as we have shifted production to several geographies, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and India,
while we concurrently reached full production capacity in our previously announced Mexico plastics facility. Additional
defensive positioning measures were taken in early November to reduce risk exposure to tariff increases. These measures
ensure we remain a dependable partner to meet our customers    demand while providing a buffer to allow time for Lifetime
to implement longer term measures, including the shifting of production outside of China and the implementation of
comprehensive price increases on affected products.

Lifetime 2025 is evolving into a renewed company, though we remain rooted with discerning financial controls, dependable
strong cash flow, and a disciplined approach to organic and inorganic growth. In a look at the 2025 agenda, we are excited
to announce that Lifetime will host an investor day to reintroduce Lifetime 2025, where we expect to update the investment
community on our near- and long-term strategic priorities to remain competitive, gain market share, and provide an updated
three-year financial outlook. I am proud of the dedication and agility of the Lifetime team. Importantly, despite sluggish global
economic conditions which have prompted headwinds as it relates to our retail customers and end customer dynamics, there
is a collective resolve to continue to innovate and win in a competitive market.
We look to 2025 as a strategically transformative year for Lifetime. I   d like to extend my deep appreciation to our employees,
partners, customers, and dedicated shareholders for their continued confidence in Lifetime   s business, vision, and distinct
embedded value. Solidified by our infrastructure of recognized, tangible brands, we are prioritizing resource allocation to
a larger pool of customers and strategic category and channel cross sell opportunities. With our data-driven approach
focusing on market analytics to add depth of innovation and catalyze sales, combined with our resilient and efficient
business model and a healthy balance sheet, we are eager to unveil our new endeavors in 2025 and another year of
strong strategic execution to unlock the intrinsic value of Lifetime.
Robert B. Kay
Chief Executive Officer



shareholder letter icon 4/25/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 

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