Lifetime Brands NASDAQ: LCUT reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said extended momentum from late 2025, with year-over-year growth in net sales and adjusted profitability as pricing actions, cost discipline, and product investment continued to take hold.
Chief Executive Officer Rob Kay said the company’s actions on “pricing, on cost, on supply chain, and new product development” helped drive results that he said exceeded analyst consensus and compared favorably with peers. Chief Financial Officer Laurence Winoker added that the company generated $30 million of free cash flow during the quarter, reducing net debt and improving leverage metrics.
First-quarter results: higher sales, improved adjusted profitability
Winoker said Lifetime Brands posted a GAAP net loss of $4.8 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $4.2 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2025. On an adjusted basis, net income was $800,000, or $0.04 per diluted share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $5.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, a year earlier.
Consolidated net sales increased 2.4% to $143.5 million. U.S. segment sales rose 1.7% to $130.7 million, which Winoker said reflected higher selling prices that went into effect in the third quarter of 2025 “to mitigate the impact of tariffs imposed on foreign-sourced products.” International segment sales increased 10.6% to $12.8 million; excluding foreign exchange translation, international sales increased 2.5%, driven by higher sales in Asia Pacific and to U.K. national accounts, according to Winoker.
Gross margin improved to 37.7% from 36.1%. Winoker attributed U.S. segment gross margin improvement to favorable product mix and higher selling prices, partially offset by higher tariffs. International gross margin improved to 36.7% from 35.3% on favorable customer and product mix.
Lifetime’s GAAP loss from operations was $2.2 million compared with income from operations of $1.1 million in the prior-year quarter. On an adjusted basis, income from operations was $5.4 million versus an adjusted operating loss of $900,000 in the prior-year period, with adjustments including acquisition-related intangible amortization, restructuring costs, due diligence expenses, and a small amount of East Coast warehouse relocation expenses. Winoker noted the prior-year period also excluded a $6.4 million non-recurring gain from a litigation settlement.
Category performance: strength in kitchen tools and home decor; mixed trends in e-commerce and cutlery
Kay highlighted kitchen tools as the company’s largest category and said it delivered a strong quarter. He said Farberware “continues to perform well across all channels,” while KitchenAid is “recovering” after what he described as a meaningful market share reset at Walmart over the past two years. Kay said Lifetime relaunched the Farberware kitchen tool line with new products and introduced KitchenAid storage, with “early acceptance” described as strong.
Home decor was another major focus, with Kay describing it as a business that was “essentially de minimis” a few years ago but has grown after deliberate product development under brands including Mikasa and Elements. He said sell-through has been strong in club and dollar channels, creating additional demand when performance is reflected in Circana data.
Kay said the home solutions segment, which includes home decor, grew 22.9% in the quarter, driven by higher sales in the dollar channel and warehouse club programs.
Other category updates included:
- Dolly Parton brand: Kay said Dolly Parton continues to contribute to growth across home decor, cutlery, dinnerware, and kitchen tools. He said Lifetime shipped approximately $18 million under the Dolly brand in 2025 and expects “substantial growth” in 2026. In the Q&A, Kay said the company did not provide a first-quarter Dolly sales figure, and added that the brand and the dollar channel were “down” in the first quarter due to timing.
- Flatware: Kay said the company continues to see a rebound in flatware sales following 2025 disruption tied to tariff implementation that resulted in lost shipments, with shipments normalizing beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025 and into 2026.
- E-commerce: Kay said e-commerce declined at the start of the quarter due to annual negotiations with Amazon and a reduction in advertising spend as plans for 2026 were evaluated. He said trends improved in March and continued improving into the start of the second quarter, and the company expects e-commerce to contribute to full-year growth.
- Cutlery: Kay said cutlery declined year-over-year in the quarter after being a growth category for the past couple of years. He said Build-A-Board remains a “strong, profitable business,” though the company saw some “normalization” in the quarter. Kay said Lifetime is introducing new products in the cutlery line and expects the category to remain attractive.
Tariffs, sourcing, and freight: managing exposure while watching container rates
Kay said Lifetime has been managing tariff exposure “proactively and systematically for over two years,” including expanding its sourcing footprint away from China to other geographies and implementing price increases during 2025. He said the company’s approach is to be “margin-dollar neutral” when passing through pricing related to tariffs, rather than targeting margin-percent neutrality.
Kay said that while Lifetime has established meaningful manufacturing capacity outside China, the company sourced a majority of product supply from China in 2025 because tariff-adjusted costs were more favorable, though he expects sourcing from other geographies to increase over time.
On costs, Kay said the company has not experienced a material impact from resin or freight costs tied to recent geopolitical developments and noted the company maintains long-term freight contracts. However, he also said container rates are “starting to go up,” and during the Q&A he told analysts the company has baked expectations for higher freight into its analysis. Winoker also cited higher freight rates as a partial offset to distribution expense improvements in both the U.S. and international segments.
Kay said disruptions related to war in the Middle East could reduce sales to the region, but described the company’s sales there as “insignificant,” below $1 million per year.
Distribution center transition, restructuring actions, and 2026 outlook
Kay said the relocation of the East Coast distribution center to Hagerstown, Maryland is on schedule and that the roughly 1 million-square-foot facility is now operational. He said capital and operational costs are tracking below estimates, and the company expects the facility and warehouse management system implementation to support labor efficiency, future growth, and cost efficiency. Winoker added that the facility is “in operation and beginning the process of receiving and shipping goods,” and said spending is now expected to be favorable to plan.
Winoker detailed $2 million of restructuring expenses in the quarter, including employee severance tied to exiting the New Jersey distribution facility, costs tied to the U.K. Project Concord restructuring, and costs to downsize the company’s sterling silver manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico. Winoker said the high price of silver has made the sterling silver flatware business no longer viable, and the facility will shift focus to ornaments and other profitable sterling silver products.
For full-year 2026, Kay said the company expects:
- Net sales: $650 million to $700 million
- Adjusted EBITDA: $53.5 million to $56 million
- Adjusted net income: $16 million to $17.5 million
Kay said the guidance reflects continued top-line growth, the full-year benefit of 2025 pricing actions, a cost structure “reset to a lower base,” and the costs associated with the Hagerstown transition running through the profit and loss statement in 2026. In response to an analyst question, Kay said the company did not “bake in” incremental pricing for 2026 beyond the carryover impact of 2025 tariff-related pricing actions.
Kay also said Lifetime continues to monitor M&A opportunities, citing reduced activity from financial buyers and lower valuation levels in some segments, and said the company is actively evaluating deal flow from businesses that need a larger platform to navigate the current trade environment. He said Lifetime plans to host an investor day later in 2026, targeting the fourth quarter.
In the Q&A, Kay also addressed potential tariff refunds, saying the company has not included any benefit in guidance and believes “appropriate GAAP is not to recognize” an impact on the financial statements. He said the company paid $41.7 million and is “entitled” to a refund, while noting uncertainty including the possibility of appeal and the tax treatment.
About Lifetime Brands NASDAQ: LCUT
Lifetime Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources, manufactures and distributes a broad portfolio of consumer products for the home. Headquartered in Garden City, New York, the company operates three primary business segments—Kitchenware, Tabletop & Home Décor and Tools & Storage—providing solutions for food preparation, cooking, serving and storage under both proprietary and licensed brand names.
In the Kitchenware segment, Lifetime Brands offers cookware, bakeware, cutlery and small electric appliances under brands such as Farberware and Chef'sChoice.
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