Xcel Brands (NASDAQ:XELB) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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The full earnings call is available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/dk3zkyjv/
Summary
Xcel Brands reported revenue of $1.1 million for Q1 2026, down from $1.3 million in Q1 2025, primarily due to a temporary supply chain disruption for its Sea Wonder and Christie Brinkley brands.
The company launched two influencer-led brands in Q1 and plans to launch more throughout 2026, with strong social media growth from 5 million to over 46 million followers.
Xcel Brands sold its Judith Ripka brand in Q2 2026, aligning with its strategy to divest legacy brands and focus on influencer-led opportunities, which are trading at higher revenue multiples.
The company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $700,000, consistent with the previous year, and noted cost reductions that lowered operating expenses.
Management is optimistic about future growth, expecting significant brand expansion and new product launches, with strategic partnerships potentially announced by Q2’s end.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Hello and welcome. My name is Ayesha and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Xcel Brands’ quarter one 2026 earnings conference call. Please note that this call is being recorded. After the prepared remarks there will be a question and answer session. If you’d like to ask a question during that time, please press the star key followed by one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Seth
Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. Welcome to the Xcel Brands’ first quarter of 2026 earnings call. We greatly appreciate your participation and interest. With us on the call today are Chairman and Chief executive officer Robert DeLorean and chief financial Officer Jim Herron. By now everyone should have had access to the earnings release for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. In addition, we filed our quarterly report on Form 10Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Thursday. The release and quarterly report will be available on the company’s website at www.excelbrands.com. this call is being webcast and a replay will be available on the Company’s investor relations website. Before we begin, please keep in mind that this call will contain forward looking statements. All forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from certain expectations discussed here. These risk factors are explained in detail in the Company’s most recent annual report filed with the SEC. XCEL does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The dynamic nature of the current macroeconomic environment means that what is said on this call could change materially at any time. Finally, please note that on today’s call, management will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, including non GAAP net income, non GAAP, diluted EPS and adjusted ebitda. Our management uses these non GAAP metrics as measures of operating performance, to assist in comparing performance from period to period on a consistent basis, and to identify business trends related to the Company’s results of operations. Our management believes these financial performance measurements are also useful because these measures adjust for certain costs and other events that management believes are not representative of our core business operating results, and thus they provide supplemental information to assist investors in evaluating the Company’s financial results. These non GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to net income, earnings per share, or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. You may refer to the attachment to the Company’s earnings Release or the Form 10Q for a reconciliation of non GAAP measures. And now I’m pleased to introduce Robert DeLorean, Chief Executive Officer. Bob, please go ahead.
Robert DeLorean (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Seth. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today. I would like to start today’s call with a brief update on recent developments since the recent filing of our annual form 10K and our outlook moving forward. After that, our CFO Jim Haron will discuss our financial results for the quarter in more detail. We continue to work hard with all our our licensee production partners, powerful influencers and strategic retail partners to drive our business. We launched two of our influencer or creator led brands toward the end of the first quarter and we expect to launch two more in the fall and another in spring 27th. As we previously mentioned, we announced our Influencer led brands with Cesar Milan, Gemma Stadtford, Jenny Martinez, Coco Rocha and Shannon Daugherty. These influencer led brands grew their social media following in our brand portfolio from 5 million to over 46 million. Based upon our pipeline of new influencer led brands, we are on Track to reach 100 million followers across our brand portfolio. We began wholesale shipments with our licensees for 2 of our influencer led brands during the first quarter and on air programming commenced for them on QVC and HSN in the second quarter. As I mentioned, the other influencer led brands will be shipping and launching throughout the rest of 2026 on interactive TV and at bricks and e commerce retailers. We are very pleased and optimistic given early results and demand for these brands. I should add that our TV and streaming content reaches well over 100 million households and generates tens of millions of media impressions per month. Many of our investors and licensing partners have asked why we are so excited by the Influencer led brand opportunity. Please allow me to illuminate this a little. According to a recent report issued by Goldman Sachs, the influencer or Creator economy generated $254 billion of sales in 2025 and is expected …
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