Barnes & Noble continues to suffer–but the pain is coming from their shiny new growth business that isn’t really growing that much. The company said after the close of the market on Wednesday that “based on current forecasts” it “now expects its fiscal year 2013 Nook segment EBITDA loss to be greater than it was in fiscal 2012 and expects fiscal year 2013 Nook Media revenues to be less than $3 billion.” Just over a month ago, when reporting lower than expected Nook sales, BN had reduced sales expectations for Nook Media (which combines Nook and BN College) to “approximately […]
Booksellers
Indigo Sales Decline On Fewer eReaders and Lack of Hits
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 4.9 percent decrease in sales of $335.6 million for the fiscal third quarter ending December 29. With echoes of Barnes & Noble’s holiday report, “the decrease was primarily driven by lower ereader revenues compared to last year,” along with a “lack of hit book titles in the quarter” and a reduction of their smaller-format stores by 8 locations. Superstore sales comps were down 5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 5.2 percent, though online sales increased 3.6 percent. EBITDA declined over 15 percent for the period, to $36 million. Their nonbook merchandise continues to expand: […]
Waterstones’ First Year Under New Management Shows Big Losses
Fretting about the state of Barnes & Noble’s bookstores is put into perspective by reports from the UK on the performance of Waterstone’s. A government corporate filing showed just how badly the chain had been suffering. It’s important to underscore that the results everyone is writing about are old–they cover the fiscal year ending almost a year ago, in April 2012. The bookseller had a £25.4 million operating loss, and a £37.3 million after-tax loss. Sales fell 14 percent, down to £410.4 million, and same-store sales dropped 11.1 percent. Managing director James Daunt blamed the result on “what I inherited…. […]
Amazon’s Slim Profit Gets Smaller Still; Bezos Confirms eBooks A “Multi-Billion Dollar Category”
Amazon reported fourth quarter sales after the close of the market on Tuesday, coming in at the low end of their own sales projections. That means that sales of $21.27 billion, up 22 percent, also fell $1 billion short of analysts’ expectations. The company did show some net income–but it was a slim $97 million or 21 cents per share, again short of investors’ expectations. (Net income is also much lower than the same quarter a year ago, when they earned $177 million.) But operating income rose–at $405 million, 55 percent better than a year ago, and better than the forecast […]
Bookselling Briefs: WH Smith’s Decline; BN Closes Pearson Deal
UK-based WH Smith reported headline sales results for the past 20 weeks consistent with their recent pattern: High-street sales were down 5 percent (both overall and on a same-store basis), while their network of travel stores was also down 5 percent (but only 4% on a same-store basis). But they say they “delivered a good profit performance,” and at the High-street stores “gross margin improved strongly in the period.” Note the pattern in our previously clipped stories for the past year: – WH Smith Comps Down 4% (and 5% At High Street Stores) | clipped Wednesday, November 14, 2012 – […]
Nook Sales Fall 12.6 Percent Over Holidays, As Core BN Store Sales Also Declined
Barnes & Noble followed up their pre-New Year’s sales warning with a fuller holiday sales report: Same-store sales at the BN superstores and BN.com fell 8.2 percent (and 10.9 percent overall), at $1.2 billion for the nine-week period. Much of the decline was due to weaker sales of Nook devices and accessories but even leaving that product line aside, “core” store sales still declined 3.1 percent compared to last year “due to lower bookstore traffic.” (A core decline had been forecast, however, in the low-to-mid single digits, and the company said those sales “exceeded expectations.”) In the last quarter BN management […]