Ironclad announces expanded program with WESCO

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas, Jan. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation (OTCQB: ICPW), announced today, that Ironclad and WESCO have entered into a memorandum of understanding between the companies, the purpose of which is to expand their working partnership in performance and hand safety products.

WESCO is a leading supplier of protective equipment to industrial markets including electric utilities. WESCO and Ironclad had been working together during 2015, on a major initiative for the oil and gas industry. Through these efforts the companies recognized the opportunity to expand their initiative to other important WESCO markets beyond oil and gas. Under this new plan, to be executed during 2016, WESCO will gain access to new and proprietary safety and performance glove technology from Ironclad in multiple key markets. This includes Ironclad's new Vibram palm glove technology, well suited for electric utilities.  Ironclad, whose original focus with WESCO, was oil and gas, will now expand its efforts with other WESCO divisions such as Conney Safety, Hi-Line, and Hazmasters to develop and extend WESCO's leadership in safety and performance gloves.  The companies have already begun to expand the product assortment of Ironclad gloves offered by WESCO.  Ironclad expects that this new and expanded initiative will have a favorable impact on its 2016 results.

However, while building expected performance in 2016, this change of initiative has also directly impacted Ironclad's 4^th quarter 2015 performance.  Ironclad's original plans with WESCO included shipments, at the end of Q4, 2015, of a significant amount of new Ironclad Industrial Impact oil and gas gloves to WESCO. However, in revising the overall plan between the companies, recognizing the opportunities in other markets, and given current market conditions in oil and gas, the original oil and gas program was moved for execution into 2016. Therefore the late Q4, 2015 glove shipments to WESCO were not made. Instead the oil and gas markets will now  be part of the 2016 plan.  Thus these unshipped orders will have a near term negative impact on Ironclad's 2015 results.   

These Q4 2015 shipments to WESCO represented the key driver in the company's forecasted 4^th quarter 2015 growth.  As a result, Ironclad's Q4 2015 net revenues will be just below 2014 net revenues, when compared on a year over year basis. 

Jeff Cordes, Ironclad's President and CEO commented; "It has always been our objective to be as transparent as possible with our investors on Ironclad's operational and financial performance.  Today, we are advising our investors of a change that has both negatively impacted the prior year ended December 31, 2015, and also created a significant new business opportunity for 2016 that will further drive our planned double digit growth. While the impact to 2015 revenues is regrettable, our objective is to achieve long term growth for Ironclad with major companies like WESCO, a nearly $8 billion leader in industrial distribution and safety related products. The clear choice here was to forego immediate returns for the opportunity to build a much broader, company-wide program with WESCO and its multiple North American divisions, many of which service markets outside of oil and gas."

"The team at WESCO recognized early on the opportunity created with our new Vibram technology to gain greater penetration of the oil and gas markets. They approached Ironclad in the 3^rd quarter with a plan to gain first mover advantage via the purchase of Ironclad's initial production during the fourth quarter of 2015.  As both teams worked diligently towards this goal, it became apparent that the opportunities for growth with WESCO were far greater and more complex than the initial plan for oil and gas alone. Further, given market conditions in the oil and gas sector, the companies agreed that a broader approach, while slowing initial efforts, was the smarter play. This is particularly true for Ironclad as the larger WESCO corporate approach allows Ironclad the opportunity to move well beyond oil and gas to become a key supplier to WESCO across all divisions and product groups."

Cordes added: "We appreciate the efforts the WESCO team is making to open doors and invest with us.  We expect WESCO to be a key national partner as we enter 2016."

About Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation

Ironclad Performance Wear is a leader in high-performance task-specific work gloves.  It created the performance work glove category in 1998, and continues to leverage its leadership position in the safety, construction and industrial markets through the design, development and distribution of specialized task-specific gloves for industries such as oil & gas extraction; automotive; and police, fire, first-responder and military. Ironclad engineers and manufactures its products with a focus on innovation, design, advanced material science and durability. Ironclad's gloves and apparel are available through industrial suppliers, hardware stores, home centers, lumber yards, and sporting goods retailers nationwide; and through authorized distributors in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Built Tough for the Industrial Athlete™

Information about Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements" that include information relating to future events and future financial and operating performance. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in demand for Ironclad's products, the introduction of new products, Ironclad's ability to maintain customer and strategic business relationships, the impact of competitive products and pricing, growth in targeted markets, the adequacy of Ironclad's liquidity and financial strength to support its growth, and other information that may be detailed from time-to-time in Ironclad's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Examples of such forward looking statements in this release include statements regarding executing on growth initiatives and guidance regarding anticipated sales growth.  For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting Ironclad, please refer to the Company's recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available at www.sec.gov. Ironclad undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For more information on Ironclad, please visit the Company's Website at www.ironclad.com.  

Contact:
William Aisenberg, CFO
[email protected] 
(972) 996-5664

SOURCE Ironclad Performance Wear Corporation

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