Barnes & Noble gave some sense of what Nook is worth to the company in reporting fourth quarter earnings (and forward guidance for fiscal 2011). BN.com sales–where Nook units and ebooks are both recorded–rose by about $44 million in the quarter, at $141 million overall up 51 percent from a year ago. And for 2011, the company expects BN.com sales to rise “approximately 75 percent to $1 billion.” So they expect to gain another $425 million in the year ahead from Nook device and ebook unit sales. (Note that for comparison purposes, their sales estimate “reflects the actual retail selling […]
Booksellers
Reflecting Weak Market, WH Smith Confirms Sales Decline
WH Smith issued a brief trading update for the 14 weeks ending June 5. With the UK book market in general decline, their High Street stores declined 4 percent on a like-for-like basis compared to a year ago. Their travel stores were also down 4 percent overall, which they somehow parsed into 2 percent regular decline and 2 percent volcanic ash decline.
Kobo Costs Weigh On Indigo In Weak Finish to Good Year
The ramp-up of Kobo impaired Canadian retailer Indigo’s earnings in their fourth quarter (ending April 3), down $1.4 million (CA) to just $500,000. While the Canadian market has been more stable than the US or the UK, Indigo’s sales suffered in the final quarter as well. Working on a 13-week comparison to the same quarter a year ago, superstore sales fell 2.7 percent and smaller format stores were down 5.8 percent, while online sales declined 3.3 percent. (They reported a 14-week fourth quarter, and a 53-week fiscal year.) CEO Heather Reisman blamed “no blockbuster hit to compete with last year’s […]
Borders' Next Ideas? Lease Buyouts, Less Stealing, Still Reinventing the Supply Chain
After yet another quarter of disappointing results, Borders cfo Mark Bierley took the lead in the company’s conference call in explaining their latest strategy towards “improving profitability” (which begs the question of how you can improve something that doesn’t exist). Since “a number of stores are dilutive to our EBITDA” they “intend to aggressively pursue lease buyouts from these stores. The buyout on these leases would, based on our assumptions, positively impact our long-term bottom line.” They also have a “comprehensive audit program” that’s “designed to reduce” losses from shoplifting, particularly in “stores that have historically seen high levels of […]
Borders' Core Skill: Shrinking
Reporting results for their first quarter ending May 1, in a still grim atmosphere for physical stores of all kinds, Borders sales fell 15.4 percent overall at $542 million. The loss from continuing operations of $64.5 million was better than a year ago, but the operating loss of $33.5 million was worse. Sales at the US stores fell further, down 16.1 percnent to $520–but same-store sales were down by only 11.4 percent company to a year ago. The company says that factoring out multimedia, which they theoretically pulled down dramatically years ago, comp store sales declined 6.8 percent, indicating less […]
Books-A-Million Comp Sales Down 3.6 Percent
Same-store sales fell 3.6 percent at Books-A-Million in their fiscal first quarter, ending May 1, as total sales of $117 million decline one percent. Net income of $2 million was just $100,000 lower than a year ago. CEO Clyde Anderson says, “While we continued to face a challenging sales environment during the period, I’m pleased that our ongoing discipline in cost control and inventory management delivered solid financial results.”Release