You Won’t “Lose Your Shirt” With This Apparel Play
By Jonas Elmerraji
Editor’s Note: This article is from the November issue of The Rhino Stock Report, which is now in a free BETA. Click here to sign-up and get the full Rhino Score on this company.
Walk into your nearest clothing store and you’re bound to see one thing… people. Lots of people.
Despite signs of a recession, people are buying more clothes than ever – spending more than $19 billion dollars last month alone (according to the U.S. Census Bureau). So why have apparel stocks fallen an average of almost 30% in the last year?
Well, there are lots of reasons why the apparel industry is a scary place for investors.
For starters you’ve got big time inventory and product risk – the risk that your inventory will become devalued or won’t sell to today’s fashion conscious consumer. You have to worry about your manufacturing facilities overseas. And don’t forget about your supply channel.
Suddenly it’s fairly clear why investors are squeamish when it comes to clothing companies. Small economic changes have prompted big downward price changes in clothing stocks during the last year. My take? That’s Great!
It’s great because I’ve been on the lookout for good value stocks. I see an undervalued industry in apparel and I think there’s a lot of gain-making potential to be had. But I’m not talking about diving headfirst into the menagerie of apparel stocks up for grabs. Investors aren’t stupid and I’ve got the same qualms they do about the industry as a whole.
But there is one apparel company that’s different.
When all of the other clothing giants were working to eek the last bit of efficiency out of their manufacturing processes, this Rhino was busy changing their business plan altogether.
And they made a pretty bold move for a clothing company – they stopped selling clothes.
Crazy? Don’t be so sure… they doubled revenues this year to $160 million and management expects to break $200 million in 2009.



