In a brief trading update, UK retailer WH Smith congratulated itself for having same-store sales at their high street stores decline 5 percent for the eleven-week holiday selling period ending January 23–slightly weaker than the 4 percent comp decline for the past 21 weeks.Company release
Earnings Reports
Indigo Grows Sales and Profits
In the one positive earnings report from the holiday period for an English-language bookselling chain, Canada’s dominant Indigo said that the same-store superstore sales rose 3.4 percent for the quarter ending December 26, while their smaller format stores were down 1.6 percent. Overall sales rose $10.2 million or 3 percent to $340.2 million (CA). Net after-tax earnings of $34.5 million were 29 percent higher than a year ago. But Indigo still suffers from competition with Amazon online, with online sales declining 2.7 percent to $29.3 million.Release
Turnaround Starts at McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill announced fourth quarter earnings per share of 53 cents, a 43 percent increase over last year, and a few cents ahead of analysts’ expectations. Overall sales were $1.5 billion, with net income of $167 million–the first increases in sales and earnings since the third quarter of 2007. Chairman Harold McGraw III cited an “upswing in higher education, professional and international markets” as contributing factors. Education sales of $520 million were up 2.6 percent, with operating profit of $33.5 million, compared to a loss of $12.7 million a year ago. (For the year, education sales were still down 9.5 percent, […]
Publishing Shows Some Improvement at Courier
Courier’s battered publishing division, comprising Dover Publications, Creative Homeowner, and Research & Education Association, grew slightly in their fiscal first quarter, up $100,000 at $11.6 million. Dover sales rose 18 percent, though Creative Homeowner was down 61 percent, “reflecting continued weakness in store traffic at home centers, the company’s largest sales channel” and the discontinuation of their book distribution services a year ago. The unit’s loss was reduced to $500,000 from $1.9 million a year ago. Overall sales for the quarter were $63.1 million, up 6 percent from a year ago, with improved net income of $2.8 million.Release
Pearson Raises Earnings Guidance for the Year
In a trading advisory ahead of their annual earnings report on March 1, Pearson told investors that they expect to show earnings per share growth of “around 10%, ahead of our previous guidance and the current consensus of market expectations (approximately 61 pence per share.) The company says, “Throughout the year, we have benefited from strong growth in US higher education; good profit improvement in US school testing and international education; and the resilience of professional testing and our subscription-based businesses in the FT Group…. In addition, in the fourth quarter we began to see the first signs of trading […]
Borders Underperforms Again; Holiday Superstore Comps Down 14.6%
Borders tries to disguise the growing shortfall in their overall holiday numbers by reporting for the eleven-weeks ending January 16 instead of the traditional nine-week week view they have used previously, but the percentages tell the tale. Same-store sales at their superstores fell 14.7 percent compared to last year, on revenue of $649.2 million, down 13.7 percent overall. But comps excluding multimedia (the business they’ve been exiting for years now) were down a mere 10.9 percent. Waldenbook comps for the select stores that will remain open (again, a special qualifier designed to make things sound better) were down 9.4 percent, […]