UK retailed WH Smith issued a brief trading update, covering the awkward period of the 18 weeks ending July 1 (e.g. roughly a third of the year). High street bookstore sales were down 14 percent compared to the norm in fiscal 2019 — or, as they like to put it, 86 percent of the previous […]
Booksellers
We’re Running Out of Ways of Telling You Barnes & Noble Education Had A Bad Quarter
Covid was hard on Barnes & Noble Education, which had been struggling even in normal conditions. Sales for the fourth quarter ending May 1 were $223 million, down 13 percent from $257 million a year ago (which was an unusual 14-week quarter), already a low bar given the impact of Covid last year. Two years […]
Waterstones Sales Fell to New Low
Waterstones filed a belated report for their fiscal year ending April 25, 2020, including only the earliest days of the pandemic, with sales falling £17 million to £376 million — the lowest level yet following a long period of general decline — down 4.3 percent from £393 million in the prior fiscal year. Operating profit […]
Indigo Finishes a Tough Year with Signs of Improvement
On Tuesday, Indigo announced results for the fourth quarter ended April 3, 2021, with sales of CA$199 million, up from $178.1 million last year. The net loss for the quarter was $(39.5) million, compared to a big loss of $(171.3) million last year, when they took significant impairment charges. For the full 53-week year, sales […]
WH Smith High Street Sales Down 14 Percent, As Company Warns of a Potential Cash Crunch
WH Smith announced six month results for the period ended February 28, with High Street sales of £270 million, down 14 percent over the prior year, and profit of £33 million, compared to profit of £47 million last year. By the quarter, High Street sales were 88 percent of 2019 sales in Q1, 84 percent […]
Storytel Meets Its Growth Goals for 2020, Sets Aggressive New Targets
Swedish audiobook subscription service Storytel published its 2020 annual report, with total sales of SEK 2.39 billion ($268 million), up from SEK 1.84 billion, exceeding its goal for the year despite a strong Swedish krona. The company’s pretax loss was SEK (210) million, an improvement from SEK (380) million last year, though the company remains […]