Is Talon International Inc. finally ready to snap to it after years of struggle that nearly busted the apparel industry supplier? The Woodland Hills company released positive earnings this month, swinging to a small third quarter profit. That followed the October announcement that it will be the exclusive supplier of zippers and trim products – such as metal buttons, snaps and labels – to hip British clothing maker and retailer Fat Face Group Ltd. The two-year pact expands on a more limited supply deal that the companies reached last year. And in the spring, Talon finally settled eight years of litigation with bankrupt English company Pro-Fit Holdings over the TekFit expandable waistband, which allows pants to expand and contract several sizes without the use of elastics. The protracted litigation killed a TekFit supplier relationship Talon had with Levi Strauss & Co. in 2006 when the San Francisco-based jeans maker didn’t renew the contract. With the legal dispute settled, Talon now is free to seek new customers. “We now own the technology and so we’ve been basically going out to major retailers, basically giving them the full story, telling them where we are now,” said Lonnie Schnell, the company’s chief executive. Schnell joined Talon as a consultant in 2005 when the bottom fell out of the company and it lost $29.5 million, largely due to the failure of a North Carolina plant that manufactured zippers. Saddled with a $22 million debt from the debacle, the company saw its shares, which were trading above $5, fall to less than $1. In 2007, it was dropped from the American Stock Exchange and began trading over the counter. Schnell said the company’s recovery began two years ago when he convinced debt holders to convert their holdings into preferred stock. “In the long run it turned out to be a very favorable conversion,” he said. Since then, the company has signed supply contracts with Coldwater Creek of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Burberry Group plc of London; Lands’ End Inc. of Dodgeville, Wis.; and other new clients. However, investors are hardly overwhelmed. Talon reported that revenue grew 20 percent to $11.3 million in the third quarter, but it only managed to eke out a profit $187,000, or just 3 cents a share. Shares closed Nov. 20 at 8.5 cents, below the midpoint of its 52-week range between 3 cents and 19 cents a share. Schnell said the company is stepping up marketing to attract even more clients, something that Ilse Metchek, president of California Fashion Association, said the company has neglected to do for a long time. “They’re really invisible as a company,” she said. “What they have not done is advertise, so they have not reinforced their brand.” The company is now dwarfed by its main competitor, YKK Group of Tokyo, which earned $197 million in its last fiscal year on net sales of about $6.5 billion. However, Metchek said the Valley company still has a great brand to build on. “Talon is the original old name in American zippers, like Hush Puppies and Fruit of the Loom,” she said. “If you thought of zippers you thought of Talon.”