It’s been a tough year for event companies, with no live events since March 2020, and the Wizards Brands financial reports show just how tough.  The company lost $2.4 million in Q1 2021, after a $1.9 million loss in calendar year 2020.  The Q1 loss was larger than the loss in any quarter last year, with $1.7 million in consulting fees among some notably high expenses driving the loss.

Revenues (which are largely coming from virtual events now) were down 85% to $379,000 for the quarter from $2.6 million in Q1 2020.  That’s a bigger drop than the company experienced for the full year 2020, when sales were down 57%, from $10.6 million in 2019 to $4.5 million in 2020.

While the company is seriously under water, with a $5.6 million negative net worth at the end of Q1, it has continued to operate by raising additional capital, using a variety of financial instruments.

The company changed CEOs in Q1, as announced late last year (see "New CEO, Events President at Wizard").  John Maatta, who joined the company in 2016 (see "Wizard World Brings in New CEO") has left the company, although he’ll be consulting at $10,000 a month.  Scott D. Kaufman, from Wizard investor Bristol Capital Advisors, was appointed as the new CEO.