Lakeland shares jump on Australian purchase

An Australian maker of protective clothing and gloves for industrial and health care workers bought 9 percent of the stock of Ronkonkoma-based Lakeland Industries, which manufactures similar items.

Lakeland’s shares rose by almost 14 percent, or $1.10, Friday to close at $8.98 in trading on the Nasdaq stock market.

The Australian company, Ansell Ltd., said in a U.S. government filing Friday that it had paid nearly $4.5 million for more than 500,000 shares of Lakeland.

An outside public relations spokesman for Lakeland said the company had 1,800 workers worldwide and fewer than 100 on Long Island. He said he did not know if executives of the two companies had been in touch recently about Ansell’s investment in Lakeland.

Ansell, headquartered in Melbourne, also produces condoms. Its website says it employs 10,000 and has operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Lakeland manufactures and sells internationally and domestically a line of safety garments and accessories for industry, and it supplies federal, state and local fire and law enforcement departments, airport crash rescue units, and the U.S. military and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the three months ended Oct. 31, its sales decreased $1 million from a year earlier to $24.7 million. U.S. sales fell and increased foreign sales were unable to fill the gap. Operating profit from continuing operations decreased to $200,000 from $900,000.

Lakeland reported a net loss of $577,000, compared with a profit of $649,000 a year earlier, citing an $880,000 charge for discontinuing an unprofitable glove-manufacturing subsidiary.