Sport Chalet Plans Succession

LA CANADA, CA-The Sport Chalet retail chain has its eye on a smooth succession in management and to that end, along with reporting quarterly results this week, has proposed a plan of succession that would recapitalize the company by redistributing the shares of founder Norbert Olberz. The plan was outlined at a conference call this week, an unusual event for Sport Chalet because the company does not ordinarily conduct quarterly conference calls as many other publicly held retailers do.

Sport Chalet chairman and CEO Craig Levra explained the proposed recapitalization plan, which will go to the company’s stockholders at its annual meeting in September for approval. The conference call to outline the recapitalization proposal came on the same day that the company reported that earnings, sales and comparable store sales all increased for both the fiscal fourth quarter and the full year.

As explained by Levra, under the recapitalization plan Olberz would transfer approximately 973,000 shares of class B common stock to Levra and to Howard Kaminsky, the company’s CFO, which would give them approximately 45% of the combined voting interests of class B and class A common stock when added to the shares of Sport Chalet that they already own. Levra said that in addition to facilitating an orderly transition of control from Olberz to the company’s management, the recapitalization plan would increase the number of outstanding shares of Sport Chalet common stock and would accomplish a number of other financial objectives, such as reducing the volatility of the company’s shares.