Levi Strauss Posts Profit Despite Slump in Sales

Levi Strauss & Co., immersed in a struggle to invigorate its business, recorded a third-quarter profit despite a drop in sales.

The privately held San Francisco jeans maker said Tuesday that it earned almost $46.6 million in the quarter that ended Aug. 29 after losing $4.3 million in the same period last year. Sales fell 8.2% to almost $995 million.

Revenue was higher in last year’s third quarter, but largely because that was when Levi shipped about $65 million in denim pants, shirts and jackets to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlets to launch its lower-priced Levi Strauss Signature brand, the company said.

Other steps taken to boost profit hurt sales, including the licensing of some products and the discontinuation of some underperforming styles in the Levi and Dockers brands, both of which have suffered declining sales in recent years. The company is trying to sell the Dockers brand.

“We set out to improve our profitability this year, and that’s what we’ve done so far,” Chief Executive Phil Marineau said in a statement.

Levi has been moving on multiple fronts to right itself after seven years of mostly declining sales as customers switched to other brands and began buying jeans at discount stores.

The Levi Strauss Signature brand, which began selling in Target Corp. stores last year, will be available in 225 Kmart Holding Corp. stores this holiday season, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Levi shuttered the last of its U.S. manufacturing plants last year. Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, the company has cut 9,500 jobs, the majority of them in the U.S.