diff --git a/plugins/entity/PanelizerEntityDefault.class.php b/plugins/entity/PanelizerEntityDefault.class.php
index 8bd3fbd..d389ba6 100644
--- a/plugins/entity/PanelizerEntityDefault.class.php
+++ b/plugins/entity/PanelizerEntityDefault.class.php
@@ -2564,7 +2564,7 @@ abstract class PanelizerEntityDefault implements PanelizerEntityInterface {
       foreach (explode(' ', $panelizer->css_class) as $class) {
         $class = ctools_context_keyword_substitute($class, array(), $display->context);
         if ($class) {
-          $info['classes_array'][] = ctools_cleanstring($class);
+          $info['classes_array'][] = ctools_cleanstring($class, array('keep separators' => TRUE));
         }
       }
     }