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 […]
Earnings Reports
Larsson Windfall Finally Kicks In As Quercus Sales Rise 75%
Sales at the UK’s Quercus rose 75 percent in the past year, now up to 19.13 million pounds as they finally enjoy the river of cash from holding world rights to Steig Larsson’s trilogy. That said, the company–and market–has been troubled enough that they still wrote down a chunk of author advances, impairing profits. Operating profit before tax was 1.19 million pounds. Creditors are nearly getting paid on time now, down from 126 days to 74 days, and with luck that means authors are getting paid on a more timely fashion, too. With the Larsson revenue stream growing constantly, preliminary […]
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
Sales and Income Improve at Bertelsmann, As Mondadori Sales Decline
In a brief first quarter trading update, Bertelsmann said that sales are up 2.5 percent, at 3.622 billion euros, and group income has returned to profitability at 45 million, compared to 78 million euro loss in the same period a year ago. No divisional data is provided in the quarterly update; those details will come in their half-year earnings report on August 31.Release Elsewhere in Europe, Mondadori also returned to modest profit in the quarter of 2.4 million euros, though their sales declined 2.8 percent to 345 million euros due to lower advertising and circulation. “Mondadori said it would continue […]
Sales Fall at Lagardere In First Quarter, As US Digital Books Hit 8 Percent
Sales at Lagardere Publishing of 433 million euros fell 6.5 percent in the first quarter (ending March 31), attributed to the “expected erosion” in sales of Stephenie Meyer books. Digital book sales, however, were “buoyant,” comprising “some 8 percent” of US revenues in the first quarter. The company says that “the current pace of growth in digital books – in particular with the arrival of the iPad” could wind up having “a very slightly positive effect” on their full-year earnings. In the short term, the publication of Meyer’s novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner on June 5 “is […]
Sales Fall Again at Simon & Schuster
Sales at Simon & Schuster fell 6 percent in their fiscal first quarter, down $10 million to $151.7 million. But adjusted OIBDA improved to $3.6 million, still slim but an improvement over essentially no earnings this time last year. The unit did take an additional $1.5 million restructuring charge during this quarter, related to previously-announced reorganizations of their Australian unit the US field sales force. Parent company CBS blames “the continued soft retail market,” which was “partially offset by significantly higher digital sales…such as ebooks, audio downloads and stand-alone applications.” The improvement in margins is “the result of strong cost […]