Is It About To Get Worse? Lakeland Hazmat Suit Orders Go Exponential, Surpass 1 Million

Zero Hedge

Almost exactly a month ago, long before the Texas Ebola fiasco, when virtually nobody had heard of a small company out of Ronkonkoma, NY called Lakeland Industries and whose only product is “industrial protective clothing for industry, municipalities, healthcare and to first responders” i.e., Hazmat suits, we asked “i) who will get sick next and ii) how bad could it get?” For the answer we focused on the recently announced order of 160,000 Hazmat suits by the US State Department which had come at a time when the CDC was urging everyone that there is nothing to fear and that Ebola is under control. Not surprisingly, shortly thereafter the Ebola situation promptly escalated and led to not only the first Ebola death and Ebola transmission on US territory, but also the first Ebola infection in New York City.

Fast forward to today when shortly after the close, and minutes after it announced the completion of another $11 million follow on offering, Lakeland surprised everyone, and especially those who are short the stock, when it released the following “Update on Business Activity Relating to Ebola Crisis” in which it announced that it has, by now, received a stunning 1 million Hazmat suit orders and rising exponentially.

 

 

Through its direct sales force and numerous distribution partners throughout the world, Lakeland has secured new orders relating to the fight against the spread of Ebola.  Orders have been received from government agencies around the world as well as other public and private sector customers.  Certain of these contracts require weekly delivery guarantees or shipments through the first calendar quarter of 2015.  The aggregate of orders won by Lakeland that are believed to have resulted from the Ebola crisis amount to approximately 1 million suits with additional orders for other products, such as hoods, foot coverings and gloves.  Lakeland started shipping such orders only in October, which is the end of its fiscal 2015 third quarter reporting period.  The main impact from Ebola-related orders received to date will not be realized until the Company’s fiscal 2015 fourth quarter ended January 31, 2015. 

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