Barnes & Noble Education reported earnings for the third fiscal quarter ended January 30, with sales of $412 million, compared to $503 million last year, a decline of 19 percent. While sales were better than analysts’ expectations, earnings were worse, with net loss of $(48) million, down from $(2) million last year. The loss included pre-tax impairment of $27.6 million, “on certain store-level long-lived assets in the retail segment.” Retail sales decreased by $70.3 million in the quarter, or 15.4 percent. Comparable store sales were down 20 percent overall, with the biggest decline in trade books, down 61 percent. Textbook […]
Booksellers
Indigo’s Holiday Quarter Challenged by Store Closures
On Friday, Indigo announced results for the third quarter ended December 26, 2020, with sales of CA$365 million, a decrease of $18 million or 5 percent. The company said the quarter started off showing real growth, but “revenues were challenged by a significant wave of mandated COVID-19 store closures in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec during the second part of November and December, a critical period of sales.” Print sales for the quarter were $192 million, down $2 million. They represented 52.6 percent of sales, compared to 50.6 percent last year. E-commerce, a small portion of sales, grew 92 percent in […]
Corporate: Wiley’s Earnings Gain and Guidance is Reinstated, Barnes & Noble Education Still Suffering
Wiley reported second quarter sales for the period ended October 31, with sales of $491 million, compared to $466.2 million last year’s period, an increase of 5 percent. Excluding acquisitions and currency impact, however, revenue was flat. Adjusted EBITDA was $120.3 million, increased from $110 million, or 7 percent. Significantly, the company reinstated guidance for fiscal year 2021 (after suspending it due to the pandemic), now forecasting low-single digit growth overall for the year, with a mid-single digit decline in Academic & Professional Learning. The return of guidance and expectations of growth along with outperforming analysts for the quarter led […]
WH Smith Ends the Year with a Loss As UK Deals with Second Lockdown
WH Smith announced preliminary results for the fiscal year ending August 31, with High Street sales of £468 million, 19 percent lower than a year ago, which the company still called “resilient.” High Street stores lost £(10) million for the year, compared to profit of £60 million last year. (Using the new accounting standards for leases, the loss was £(4) million, but earnings comp to the old standard still in place last year.) In the first half of the year, pre-Covid, High Street had profits of £44 million — and then lost £(54) million in the second half. The fiscal […]
Storytel Outperforms Its Own Forecasts
Swedish audiobook subscription service Storytel announced earnings for the third quarter ended September 30, with net sales of SEK609 million ($70.6 million), up from SEK491 million in last year’s period. Streaming sales were SEK490 million, up from SEK 399 million, or 23 percent. The company averaged 1.36 million paying subscribers in the quarter, up 34 percent from 1.014 million. Both streaming sales and subscribers exceeded the company’s forecasts for the quarter. The company also announced positive EBITDA for the first ime, of SEK7 million, but cautions that it was due to an accounting change and won’t be a trend: “since […]
Indigo Reports Second Quarter Growth, As Online Gains Outweigh Store Declines
Canada’s Indigo Books reported sales for the fiscal 2021 second quarter ended September 26, at $205.3 million (CA), up from $203.4 million in the same period last year, an increase of $1.9 million. Net loss was $(17.5) million, slightly improved from a loss of $(20.5) million last year. The key was that pandemic-driven online sales remained more than twice as high as they were a year ago, at $63 million — up 113 percent over the $29.5 million a year ago — which made up for the $32.7 million (19.3 percent) decline at their physical stores, which registered $136.8 million […]