Sport Chalet sporting gear chain will take plunge into stock mart.

Sport Chalet, the sporting and camping goods mini-chain known to two generations of Southlanders, has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealing plans to issue 1.6 million shares of stock at between $8 and $10 a share.

The Los Angeles-based brokerage house Wedbush Morgan Securities is handling the $12.8 million to $16 million initial public offering.

In its first-ever disclosure of its financials, La Canada-based Sport Chalet reported strong sales and profit gains in its Southern California market, despite the headwind of the toughest recession in the postwar era.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, Sport Chalet Sporting Goods Inc. posted net income of $1.85 million on sales of $94.8 million, compared with netting $344,036 on revenues of $79.2 million the year before.

The 13-store Sport Chalet chain was founded in 1959 by Norbert Olberz, now 67, chairman and sole shareholder of the company.

Olberz started Sport Chalet in a 2,000-square-foot shop on Foothill Boulevard in La Canada in 1960 and specialized in camping and skiing gear. He soon branched across the street into a 25,000-square-foot shop.

La Canada residents remember Olberz living in a modest house just blocks from his original store. Due to SEC "quiet period" regulations, Olberz could not comment last week on the IPO.

In 1981 he opened a second shop in Huntington Beach, and thereafter created a string of stores up and down Southern California, in the cities or areas of Oxnard, Santa Clarita, West Hills, Burbank, Beverly Hills, Marina del Rey, Brea, Montclair, Mission Viejo, La Jolla, La Mesa and Point Loma.

The newer outlets are called "superstores," and are laid out in 35,000- to 45,000-square-foot formats.

The big stores feature areas devoted to skiing; scuba diving; backpacking; fishing; bicycling and general athletic merchandise. Some stores even have glass-walled pools to help in the sales of scuba gear and training in its use.

During the 1980s expansion period, Sport Chalet also upgraded accounting and inventory systems and opened a 116,000-square-foot warehouse in Montclair, according to the prospectus.

Sport Chalet's chief competitor is Sportmart, a chain with 11 stores in the Southland, of a similar size and product mix to Sport Chalet.

There are many other retailers of sporting goods merchandise, but most are either mass merchandisers, such as K mart or Wal-Mart, or smaller, mid-range retailers, such as Big 5 or Oshman's Sporting Goods.

Sport Chalet's prospectus indicated no specific purpose for funds derived from the IPO. Rather, it said it would pay down debt and improve its position of being poised for further expansions.

For the future, Sport Chalet plans to open more superstores in Southern California, at the clip of about three to four a year, starting in March of next year. Interestingly, although the company maintains fire and theft insurance on its stores, it does not carry earthquake coverage.

Sport Chalet reported that in fiscal 1992, the average customer spent $60 per visit, with the majority of transactions between $50 and $300.

From fiscal 1998 through fiscal 1992, Sport Chalet achieved sales growth of 24.9 percent, annually compounded, despite the recession and poor snow conditions at local ski resorts and at Mammoth Mountain.

"The company is influenced by the amount and timing of snowfall at the ski areas frequented by those living in Southern California, particularly the Mammoth Mountain ski resorts in the eastern Sierra Nevada," reported Sport Chalet.

Ski equipment and apparel sales accounted for 36.3 percent of company sales in 1989, but slid to 28.1 percent by 1992, due to both diversification efforts and bad snow at Mammoth Mountain, reported Sport Chalet.

After the stock offering, founder Olberz will still own 75.4 percent of Sport Chalet stock, will draw a $200,000 annual salary and will remain active at the company, particularly in warehousing and distribution.

His son, Eric Olberz, 29, has worked for the company since 1975 and is vice president. He drew a salary and bonus of $142,264 in fiscal 1992. President and chief executive of Sport Chalet is Samuel Allen, 42.

Based upon an assumed IPO price of $9, the elder Olberz's hoard of Sport Chalet stock should be worth about $43.2 million.