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: […]
Earnings Reports
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 – […]
Courier Rebounds In Printing, But Not Publishing
Courier Corporation announced an improved first fiscal quarter: For the period ending December 29, sales rose 3 percent to $64.8 million and profits of $2.4 million were up considerably from $1.5 million a year ago. Digital printing sales rose “on continued growth of customized versions of college textbooks as well as increased use of digital printing among specialty trade publishers.” Their publishing division continues to suffer, as sales fell 3 percent to $9.1 million. The unit’s operating loss was $1.1 million, an improvement only by comparison to the loss of $1.3 million a year ago. The company expects sales to […]
Pearson Falls On Modest Profit Warning
In a trading update ahead of their full late-February earnings report, Pearson said to expect profits slightly short of what analysts had been expecting. Forecast operating profit of approximately £935 million and adjusted earnings of approximately 84 pence per share is only nine-tenths of a pence below expectations–but Pearson generally outperforms those expectations, and the stock has fallen in London on the news, down 4.5 percent over the past two days of trading. The release itself is disarmingly pleasant and polite. Penguin “benefited from a good fourth-quarter publishing performance and traded in line with our expectations,” and “will report revenues in […]