Columbia Sportswear's Q2: Sales up, net loss narrows, new strategy unveiled

Columbia Sportswear Company announced its second-quarter 2025 financial results, revealing a mixed performance characterised by international growth offsetting weakness in the U.S. market. The company also unveiled its new Accelerate growth strategy, a multi-year effort to re-energise the Columbia brand and attract younger consumers.

Net sales increase but net loss continues

Net sales for the second quarter increased by 6 percent to 605.2 million dollars, primarily driven by a shift in wholesale shipment timing and higher spring 2025 wholesale orders. This growth, however, was tempered by underlying softness in the U.S. market and lower direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales. Gross margin expanded by 120 basis points to 49.1 percent.

Despite the sales increase, the company reported a net loss of 10.2 million dollars, or 19 cents per diluted share, a slight improvement from the 11.7 million dollars net loss reported in the same quarter last year.

Chairman, president, and CEO Tim Boyle noted that while the U.S. business remains soft, international markets are showing sustained momentum. He highlighted the upcoming launch of a new, highly differentiated Columbia brand voice and marketing campaign as a key component of the AccelerateE growth strategy.

Boyle also addressed the challenges stating, “The apparel and footwear industry is facing increasing tariffs, on top of already high existing duties. In this period of global trade policy uncertainty, we continue to take actions to mitigate the financial and operational impacts to our business."

For the first half of 2025, Columbia's net sales grew by 3 percent to 1.38 billion dollars, with gross margin expanding to 50.1 percent. The company's net income for the first half increased by 5 percent to 32.1 million dollars, or 58 cents per diluted share.

Columbia Sportswear reveals Q3 and full year outlook

Looking ahead, Columbia Sportswear projects third quarter net sales to decrease by 3 percent to 1 percent, with an operating margin of 7.6 percent to 9 percent, and diluted earnings per share of 1 dollars to 1.20 dollars. For the full year 2025, the company expects net sales to be flat to slightly up, with a range of 3.33 to 3.40 billion dollars.