Lifetime Brands Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call - Tariff Shock, First-Mover Pricing Restored Margins

Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Lifetime Brands Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. This time, I would like to inform all participants that their lines would be in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer portion of the call. If you would like to ask a question during this time, please press Star and one on your touch-tone telephones. Please also note, today’s event is being recorded. At this time, I’d like to introduce our host for today’s conference, Jamie Kertchen. Mr. Kertchen, you may go ahead.

Jamie Kertchen, Moderator/Investor Relations, Lifetime Brands: Good morning, and thank you for joining Lifetime Brands fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. With us today from management are Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, and Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin the call, I’d like to remind you that our remarks this morning may contain forward-looking statements that relate to the future of the company. These statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbor protection from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Any such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and factors that could influence our results are highlighted in our earnings release, and other factors are contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such statements are based upon information available to the company as of the date hereof and are subject to change for future development.

Except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update such statements. Our remarks this morning and in our earnings release also contain non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Regulation G promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Included in such release is a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. With that introduction, I’d like to turn the call over to Rob Kay. Please go ahead, Rob.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Thank you. Good morning. A year ago, we entered 2025 knowing it would be a challenging year. What we did not fully anticipate was just how dynamic the external environment would become. The tariff escalations, retail customer disruption, consumers’ reactions, the operational demands were all significant. Yet, when I look at where we stand today, I’m proud of how our team performed and where we finished the year. Let me walk you through the key dynamics that shaped both the fourth quarter and the full year, and the decisions we made, including those that carried short-term costs and why they were right for our business. Overall, what drove Lifetime’s 2025 performance was the macro environment, largely shaped by U.S. tariff actions and the market’s reaction to them.

The biggest impact of this was the second quarter implementation of 145% tariffs on goods sourced from China following the Liberation Day tariffs implemented on many countries throughout the globe. This resulted in wide-scale disruption and, in some cases, cancellation of orders for our products, both by our customers and internally by Lifetime, as the immediacy of the implementation would have resulted in selling products at a loss. As the year progressed and some stability was introduced on tariff rates, Lifetime was a first mover in implementing price increases across all our channels to offset the tariff cost. While this initially hurt our volumes as we were selling our products at a higher price than most of our competition, the market eventually caught up and pricing parity was restored.

However, Lifetime benefited from enhanced profitability due to the price increases, which led to improved performance relative to the overall market and many of our peers. In particular, we note that bottom line results showed a positive year-over-year growth by the fourth quarter of 2025. Contributing to this performance was our pricing strategy, a comprehensive cost efficiency and reduction program, and improved results in our international business. First, as we told you earlier in the year, the impact of the 145% tariffs on China-sourced product was significant. It negatively impacted shipments in the second quarter and flowed into disruption in the third. We specifically called out that some of that deferred volume would come back in 2025, with a fuller normalization expected in 2026.

As you can see, we benefited by the current quarter with some resumption in ship-shipment levels from missed second quarter shipments, particularly in tabletop and kitchenware. The most visible example is Costco, our largest year-over-year decline in any single customer through September. They pulled back sharply on tabletop programs as tariff uncertainty peaked. As conditions stabilized, a portion of those programs shipped in the fourth quarter, and we performed very well with Costco in Q4. That recovery was a meaningful contributor to our strong finish. The second major factor driving performance was Lifetime’s decision to move first on pricing to offset tariff costs. We did not wait to see what the market would do. We built a detailed plan with each of our customers, communicating the rationale clearly and implementing the increases. As I mentioned above, there were short-term consequences.

In the third quarter, we were priced higher than the market, and that created some volume headwinds. A portion of our shelf performance suffered while competitors had not yet moved. By the fourth quarter, the market had largely caught up. Pricing parity had returned across all our categories. Because we had been selling at higher prices earlier than most, we captured better margins during that window. If you look at our results, particularly the bottom line, you can see that clearly. We had a modest outperformance on the top line, but we significantly exceeded expectations on the bottom line. Our first-mover pricing decision was a key contributor to that outcome. The third element of our Q4 performance was cost discipline. Variable costs naturally flex with volume, but we also took deliberate action on our cost structure throughout the year.

We streamlined infrastructure and SG&A came in at $38 million in Q4, down 12% versus the prior year quarter. That’s a meaningful reduction, and it reflects real work done on the cost base. Combined, these three factors drove a strong quarter and finish to the year. The fourth quarter came in ahead of expectations, and I think the results speak to the strategy working. Revenue was modestly below prior year, which we anticipated, but margins expanded and the bottom line was strong. Larry will take you through the detail in a moment. While the year was challenging due to tariffs, we took the decisive actions I’ve discussed to mitigate their effects. Given the circumstances, we performed well, as evidenced by our results.

In the fourth quarter, adjusted income from operations was up over 30% from the prior year quarter, and full-year adjusted EBITDA was over $50 million, despite a 5% decline in net sales. We continue to experience positives from our investment in new product development. The Dolly brand grew to approximately $18 million for the year, an increase of over 150%. A great reflection on where the strategy is gaining traction. We are encouraged by the trajectory heading into 2026. Our international segment continued to demonstrate resilience. For the full year, international sales came in at $56.7 million, up 1.7% as reported. On a constant currency basis, international was down modestly at 1.7%.

A solid result given the backdrop, particularly as we gained share in national accounts in light of a continued decline in independent shops, which historically have been the core of the European customer base. On Project Concord, our international restructuring initiative, we made continued progress throughout the year and the financial benefits are flowing through. That said, I wanna be transparent. The final phase of Concord implementation was delayed modestly due to legal and structural constraints that took longer than anticipated to work through. We expect those to be fully resolved and implemented in the first half of 2026. The direction here remains clear, and we remain committed to completing Concord and realizing the full benefits of the program. As announced early last year, we also took deliberate action on our distribution infrastructure, announcing the relocation of our East Coast distribution center to Hagerstown, Maryland.

The facility will span approximately 1 million sq ft, adding 327,000 sq ft of incremental capacity over our current New Jersey facility, which it will replace, and is expected to commence operations in the second quarter of 2026. This move is consistent with how we approach the business, identifying where we can drive long-term efficiency and positioning Lifetime’s operations to support our multi-year growth initiatives while significantly containing Lifetime’s future distribution expenses. As we enter 2026, we do so with momentum, a leaner cost structure, and a clearer sense of where the opportunities are. On guidance, consistent with our historical cadence, we intend to provide detailed full year 2026 guidance in conjunction with our first quarter results in mid-May.

At that point, we will have a clearer line of sight into the year and can speak to it with specificity you deserve. What I can tell you now is that recovering sustainable top-line growth is the priority. We have done the work on the cost base and proven we can protect margins. Now the focus shifts to driving volume through our existing customer relationships, through the brands and product lines that are gaining traction, and through the pipeline of strategic activity that we continue to develop. Finally, I want to acknowledge that this type of year, navigating real disruption while delivering results that exceeded where we started, does not happen without an exceptional team. I’m grateful for everyone at Lifetime who stayed focused, executed under pressure, and kept our commitments to customers and shareholders alike.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Larry to review the financials in more detail.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Thanks, Rob. As we reported this morning, net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $18.2 million or $0.83 per diluted share.

Compared to $8.9 million or $0.41 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted net income was $23 million for the fourth quarter, or $1.05 per diluted share as compared to $12 million or $0.55 per diluted share in 2024. Income from operations were $20 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. That’s compared to $15.5 million in 2024. Adjusted income from operations fourth quarter 2025 was $26.4 million compared to $20.2 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025 was $50.8 million. Adjusted net income, adjusted income from operations and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures, which are reconciled to our GAAP financial measures in the earnings release. The following comments are for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 2024, unless stated otherwise.

Consolidated sales decreased 5.2% to $204.1 million. U.S. segment sales decreased 5.5% to $185.3 million. Sales were favorably impacted by the increase in selling prices to mitigate the impact of higher tariffs on foreign sourced products. However, retailers buying disruption and consumers dampened spending reaction to the high tariff environment dampened demand in our industry. Within this segment, product lines decreases were in kitchenware and home solutions, partially offset by an increase in tableware. International segment sales decreased 2.3% to $18.8 million and excluding the impact of foreign exchange translation, the decrease was $1.4 million or 6.8%. The decrease came from the U.K. e-commerce. Gross margin increased to 38.6% from 37.7%.

US segment gross margin increased to 38.8% from 37.6%. The improvement was driven by lower ocean freight rates, some favorable product mix, and the timing of inventory costs recognized under FIFO inventory accounting. These factors more than offset the adverse effects of tariffs in the current quarter. For international, gross margin decreased to 36.8% from 38.6%, driven by higher customer support spending in the current period. US segment distribution expenses as a percent of goods shipped from its warehouses was 8.3% versus 9.1%. The decrease was attributable to improved labor management efficiencies, largely resulting from the fully implemented new warehouse management system in our West Coast facility and the effect of higher tariff-induced selling prices without a commensurate increase in expenses.

International segment distribution expenses as a percentage of goods shipped from its warehouses was 19.8% versus 18.1%. The increase is due to higher sales to prepaid freight customers and the expansion of sales into the Asia Pacific region. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 12%, $38 million. US segment expenses decreased by $3.2 million to $29.6 million. As a percentage of net sales, the expense decreased to 16% from 16.7%. The decrease was driven by lower employee expenses, including incentive compensation. International SG&A decreased $1.5 million to $3.1 million. As a percentage of net sales, the expense decreased to 16.7% versus 24.2% due to lower employee and advertising expenses as well as a foreign currency transaction gains.

Unallocated corporate expense decreased $500,000 to $5.2 million due to lower employee expenses, also including incentive compensation, partially offset by higher professional fees. Interest expense decreased by $600,000 due to lower average borrowings and lower interest rates on our variable rate debt. For income taxes, the benefit rate is primarily driven by the release of a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets recorded in the second quarter. Looking at our debt and liquidity, our balance sheet continues to be strong, notwithstanding the higher working capital needs that resulted from tariffs. At year-end, our liquidity was $76.6 million, which includes cash plus availability under our credit facility and receivable purchase agreement. Our adjusted EBITDA to net debt ratio at year-end was 3.9x.

Lastly, as Rob discussed, the relocation of our East Coast distribution center is expected to begin operating in the second quarter. I’ll add that the costs of exiting the New Jersey facility and starting up the Maryland facility, including capital expenditures, are expected to be at or below our forecast. This concludes our prepared comments. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin to conduct our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star and two if you’d like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys to ensure the best sound quality. One moment while we poll for questions.

Jamie Kertchen, Moderator/Investor Relations, Lifetime Brands: Our first question today comes from Matt Koranda from Roth Capital. Please go ahead with your question.

Matt Koranda, Analyst, Roth Capital: Hey, guys. Good morning. I know you don’t typically give full year official guidance until the first quarter, but just wanted to hear a little bit more about building blocks for growth in 2026. I know you said you intend to grow in the year. Maybe you could just talk about some of the puts and takes around the price that you took in 2025 that sort of wraps into 2026, new product launches, existing growth with some of the successful lines like Dolly. I guess some of those are maybe a little bit offset by volume declines more recently, but just how do you think about those factors qualitatively as we kind of think about the forecast for 2026? Any commentary on seasonality this year would be appreciated as well.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Well, from a seasonality, we’re expecting more of a normal seasonality. You know, there were disruptions in 2025 that were tariff oriented, which you know, put a total curve on normal seasonality. We don’t expect it to not normalize in 2026. You know, some of the things you mentioned, you know, pricing increases, you know, which is kind of a one-time event, happened throughout 2025. The impact of those will be fully felt because they were fully implemented in 2025. You get the full impact of that in 2026, which of course, the caveat is, who knows what’s gonna happen.

From a new product introduction, I think, well, I know that we’ve been introducing, you know, a much greater amount of new product than a lot of competition just because times are tough and a lot of people are paring back. A couple of areas, you know, we’re seeing good traction. One, we talked about the Dolly brand. That’s actually expanding, you know, beyond the dollar channel where we have firm commitments. While we had tremendous growth in 2025, we expect that trajectory to continue in 2026. We see some good growth there. Our food service initiative, that’s a business where you have to, you know, build a book of business, and then it becomes a bit of an annuity for a period of time.

Particularly Mikasa Hospitality has gained a lot of traction. You know, while a small base, we expect substantial increase in those revenues in 2026. The end market in 2025 for food service establishments was very challenged. You saw new store openings decline. You saw store closings throughout a lot of multi-unit franchises and the like. Unknown where that heads in 2026. The industry thinks it’ll go up, but nonetheless, we’ve gained market share and not end market-driven. We’ll see some nice growth in that area in 2026. Those are some of the key drivers. Hopefully answers gives you some perspective there.

Matt Koranda, Analyst, Roth Capital: Yeah, that’s helpful. Thanks, Rob. We wanted to also hear a little bit about what you’re hearing from your large retail customers in terms of willingness to take on inventory. What does sell through look like or POS data that you’re seeing in kind of your key SKUs versus sell in and how are you thinking about that for 2026?

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: We’ve seen a pretty large divergence from channel to channel with certain channels performing very strong from a POS perspective and certain ones being weaker. We saw a continuing trend in the fourth quarter that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, that there’s been an uptick in e-commerce. The holiday season continued the trend that we saw in 2024, where a lot of consumers waited to make their purchases from historical purchase cycles because they knew they could get delivery rather quickly, and that helped e-com in the fourth quarter and therefore drove full year performance. That trend should continue. There is a high bifurcation.

From a perspective you see from time to time, particularly with larger retailers, we saw some of this in 2025, they pull back on safety stock issues, so there’s a divergence between sell in and sell through, and we saw some of that in 2025. We don’t expect that to be a major impact in 2026. Part of that is in some of the more sophisticated people that have done that have pared back a lot, and if they pare back more, they would harm, you know, their sell through, their velocity, which is obviously not in their interest to do so. We don’t expect that to be a factor in 2026.

Matt Koranda, Analyst, Roth Capital: Okay. Very helpful. Maybe just one more, if I could. The net leverage at the end of the year looks good, under 4x. Wanted to just hear how you guys are thinking about cash priorities this year. Obviously, you got a lot of organic growth initiatives in place. You have the European restructuring that’s still maybe ongoing or maybe just recently implemented. How do you balance the organic investments that you need to make versus

The M&A funnel versus buying back your stock. Just wanted to hear a little bit about sort of capital allocation decision-making for 26.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. There’s actually a lot of internal growth initiatives that we’re pursuing, but they’re not capital intensive, except for the DC, which we’ve already, you know, there’s not too much to come for that. We also, you know, will get the benefit of the $13 million of the funding, government funding from mostly Maryland, that’ll offset. Not really any issue and any constraints there, and plenty of availability. You know, we’ll continue, we have no intention to change anything on our dividend policy.

We’ll look to ultimately restructure our debt arrangements, ’cause at this point and where we are in terms of life of that, we’re not able to buy back stock, so we’re not using cash at this point to do that, because we have agreements with our lenders in place. We’ll ultimately restructure that and allow us to do so when we do that. The M&A environment is the strongest I’ve seen in decades for strategic, because first of all, you know, financials aren’t investing, you know. Our competition for the longest time has been financials at very, very high valuations. Valuations have been down.

You know, a lot of businesses that are institutionally owned, you know, there’s something that needs larger company or infrastructure help, you know. Like, to move product from a China-based system to a distributed geography, you need a lot of infrastructure to do that. Both from a supply chain quality, it takes a lot of effort and work, and with the fluctuations of moving it all over the place, it’s a lot of smaller, less capitalized people are having troubles, let alone the systems and everything to deal with the constant pricing fluctuations as tariffs change and evolve. That combination has made it very attractive. We’re seeing real deal flow at real valuations that we haven’t seen literally in decades. We have some large opportunities we’re looking at.

You don’t know if they’ll come through, but you know, it’s one of the things that we wrote off on a couple of things that we’re working. Not wrote off, but you know, expensed in the fourth quarter. Related to that. Hopefully we’ll see some highly accretive opportunities if we can execute.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Okay, sounds great. Appreciate all the detail, and I’ll turn it over.

Jamie Kertchen, Moderator/Investor Relations, Lifetime Brands: Our next question comes from Brian McNamara from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead with your question.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. This is your best Q4 EBITDA margin that we can recall with sales down even better than 2020 and 2021 when sales were up. Gross margins were nicely up, presumably from the benefit of tariff pricing. I’m curious what drove SG&A lower and how sustainable that is.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah, it’s a great question, Brian, and hi. So it’s sustainable. It’s all a function of how fast we wanna grow. You know, if we have opportunities and there’s a good return on that, you know, we can increase investment, you know, which would increase, you know, infrastructure and SG&A, but with a return. So, in the current state of the business with what we have on the plate, including the growth we intend for 2026, there’s not a need for investing in SG&A. We’ll also see the further benefits one way or the other with our international operations, which will continue to benefit those line items.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Great. Next, I’m curious-

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Brian, let me just-

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Larry’s gonna give you something on.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: On the U.S. gross margins, the comment I made about the FIFO inventory. You know, we had talked about how we were increasing our sales price to offset the tariff, which should have a negative effect on the gross margin percentage, neutral to dollars. Because we still have some pre-tariff inventory, we’re seeing some benefit there. You know, that’s not gonna continue, right? As that rolls off, it’ll come back a bit. Yeah.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Right.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Just wanted to-

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Sorry to belabor, but as you know, Brian, you’ve seen us for a little bit, you know, in any given particular quarter or reporting period, you know, you’re gonna get margin fluctuations based upon mix, channel mix particularly, but also product.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Understood. Next, I’m curious, which of your brands saw sales increases in 2025, outside of Dolly, as in overall sales declined for a fourth straight year? What gives you guys confidence that the top line inflects this year?

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: The main confidence that we see there is the disruptions that we saw in 2026. Again, in the fourth quarter, we got some rebound of things that didn’t ship from Q2 and Q3, but we’ll have a much more normalization, you know, in a lot of the core business in 2026, ’cause some of that did not come back in 2025, will in 2026. That’s gonna be a natural driver for our business. We talked about Dolly will continue to grow. We’re seeing good traction there. You know, in cutlery, we’ve had a tremendous run for a few years, and a lot of that is new product implementation. Our Build-A-Board line, you know, went from nothing. It, you know, created a whole marketplace.

The growth trajectory of that piece of cutlery will not continue from a, you know, the trajectory of growth, but we established a new business, you know, it will maintain. There are some other things in that line that we’re introducing that, you know, hopefully, will produce some good growth. There are some things we haven’t disclosed that are new, that get us into a new space. Total internal investment, that, hopefully will hit 2026. It will not. If not, we’ll hit 2027. Unfortunately, we can’t disclose that at this moment, but there are some things that are total organic, internal initiatives that are completely new that hopefully will drive some nice growth for us.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Great. Just on the brand growth for the year, any brands perform better than the company average?

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. I mean, Taylor had a phenomenal year. You know, Taylor’s a great business. You know, from the retailers to our customers’ perspective, it’s very attractive to them because what they track GMROI as a key metric, which is the velocity, and the margins that they make, it’s very profitable for them. It’s very good. And it had a very good year across the board, in 2025. You know, again, you know, that trajectory will not continue in 2026, but, we had a banner year, and that continues to do well. Farberware, you know, across different things, you know, very strong. And, and Farberware’s, you know, our growth engine. You know, KitchenAid, we lost some share a couple years ago, at Walmart. That has run through our numbers.

We still have some of that that hit us in 2025, you know. That’s actually the opportunities. We relaunched the kitchen tool piece of that with a new line that’s getting tremendous traction. We also introduced just recently for 2026 a storage KitchenAid storage product, which we think is beautiful but is getting more importantly acceptance in the marketplace. That not in 2025, but 2026 is looking pretty good, KitchenAid.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Great. You mentioned the Dolly brand, obviously sales up really nicely, up 150% for the year. How big is that now, and what is your expectation for sales growth contribution or shipments in 2026?

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: you know, 2024, we started that program. It was a small base, right? You know, so part of that 150% was off a small base. We shipped $18 million in 2025. We will have substantial growth in 2026 as well.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Got it. Okay. Finally, obviously topical, given the war in Iran at the moment, can you remind us how you’re positioned on freight in terms of spot versus contract, your cost exposure to oil and resin, and anything else we should be mindful of there?

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. Many like questions that take an hour to answer. From a couple of things in Iran, one is what we’re seeing is container rates are starting to go up, and we’ll probably start to experience that. We have very attractive long-term contracts in for freight, but the reality of what happens in very high escalating periods is the shippers start to ignore those, to be honest. You know, so long-term contracts are a benefit, you know, but sometimes, you know, there’s only so much that you can benefit. You’ll get some of it, but not all of it in very high inflationary ocean freight environments. We do very little business in the Mideast. We won’t get much disruption there.

It will get no disruption. We actually have a lot of upside that may not come on some new business. Either way, it’s not material. Our European business is in jeopardy of seeing some supply disruption ’cause, you know, the shipments are coming, you know. It’s gonna be longer if they have to go around Africa and the like. We think our inventory levels aren’t gonna impact that. From a cost of goods sold perspective, you know, plastics have resins. Resins are impacted by petroleum costs. We have not seen anything. We’ll see how that plays out. If you look at it as a total percentage on a bill of material basis, it isn’t gonna have a huge impact on us.

Brian McNamara, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Great. Very helpful. Thanks very much. Pass it on.

Jamie Kertchen, Moderator/Investor Relations, Lifetime Brands: Our next question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski from Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead with your question.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. Certainly nice to see the better than expected results here in the fourth quarter. It sounds overall like you guys should be able to maintain your SG&A costs. As far as your distribution costs, those also came down in the fourth quarter. How should we be thinking about that line item? I have a couple of other questions as well.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. On the distribution, you know, and as I noted.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Our West Coast facility is running very efficiently, given the new warehouse management system that’s working quite well. As I noted as a percentage because, you know, we had selling price increases, but there wasn’t any meaningful cost increase. We’ll continue to see that expense benefit as a percentage. You know, we think you know, there’ll be some I’d say mild disruption in expenses perhaps when we move into the Maryland facility, but we anticipate those. Yeah, we’ve done it many times, these moves. We’re putting that new warehouse management system in that facility, so we’re anticipating it to run quite well.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: On SG&A, and this also goes to Brian’s question a little bit, is, you know, the moves we’ve taken are sustainable. The only thing where you’ll see some bounce back in 2026 versus 2025 is look, you know, from a sort of target and incentive compensation perspective, we paid out hardly any, you know, nothing to management. With improved performance in 2026, there will likely be corresponding payment of incentive compensation. You know, but everything, that’s not the bulk of the SG&A cost that was achieved. Cost reduction that was achieved in 2025.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Got it. Okay. Thanks for that. You know, in terms of the international segment, Larry, you may have said this, but perhaps I missed it. In terms of the operating loss for the quarter for the year, can you provide the comments on that?

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. I mean, you know, there was a loss. It wasn’t as pronounced as we had in 2024. I mean, as Rob mentioned on his comments, we’re not done. The Concord, and we’ll call it Concord 2.0, continues. There’s some other things that we had hoped to achieve, but, you know, there’s legal and other roadblocks that slowed us down. We’re hoping to achieve during 2026.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Okay, got it. Just a couple of other things here. As far as the fourth quarter, you had a tax benefit, which you addressed, Larry. How should we think about the tax rate for 2026? Any sort of commentary there on that?

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Sure. Yeah, I know it’s very hard with our numbers to figure out tax rate, but we should be in the high 20% range. That’s based on. Well, I should say we have some unusual occurrence this quarter, more unusual than others. What distorts our provisions historically has been the loss internationally, where because of a history of losses, you can’t record a tax benefit, and that would distort it. To the extent we get the international operations to break even or better, our tax rate should be in the you know 27%-28%. That’s a combination of the U.S. federal rate and state.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Gotcha. I got it. Okay. Lastly, as far as the Maryland distribution center, sounds like it’s working very well on track. In terms of thinking about the CapEx for this year, do you guys have a ballpark estimate what that could be?

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Yeah. We had, like I said, we’re anticipating it to be below budget, but, you know, let’s not count it. We’re very confident we’re gonna achieve the budget. I think we should beat it. For CapEx, I think we had originally forecasted $9 million, it may be perhaps less than that, a little less. But of that, we spent a couple of million of it in 2025. You know, let’s call it around $7 million in, for that, just for that in 2026.

also bear in mind there’ll be a little offset compared to historically because we won’t have the maintenance that we typically have in our New Jersey facility because we are putting in, you know, new racking and other things and you know, turrets and other things in the Maryland facility. So there’ll be maybe another million-dollar benefit, you know, against what we would otherwise spend for routine maintenance.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Understood. Well, thank you very much and best of luck.

Larry Winoker, Chief Financial Officer, Lifetime Brands: Thanks. Thanks, Anthony.

Jamie Kertchen, Moderator/Investor Relations, Lifetime Brands: Ladies and gentlemen, in showing no additional questions at this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

Rob Kay, Chief Executive Officer, Lifetime Brands: Thanks, Jamie. Thank you, everyone, for listening, and your interest in Lifetime Brands, and we look forward to further dialogue in the future. Have a great day.

Operator: With that, everyone, we’ll be concluding today’s conference call and presentation. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines. Everyone else has left the call.