In one of those UK “trading updates” that doesn’t disclose actual data, Pearson tells investors the company is “trading ahead of expectations” so far this fiscal year and raised its earnings guidance a few pence, to “at or above 60 pence a share” for the full year. Primarily, the pound has stayed weak enough against the dollar and the company has “outperformed the US schools market.” At Penguin, currency neutral sales are down 4 percent, but with the weak pound actual sales are up 12 percent “as the expected tough retail market conditions were largely offset by a good publishing […]
Earnings Reports
Book Sales Fall 4 Percent at WH Smith
Reporting preliminary annual results for the fiscal year ending August 31, the UK’s WH Smith said sales fell 5 percent at their High Street stores, at 892 million pounds. Same-store sales on books declined 4 percent, but their gross margin increased, with high street operating profit of 49 million pounds, up 4 percent. The company credited itself with “further progress implementing our strategy to build on our authority as a popular book specialist. We saw good market share performance versus the general retail market with strong market shares in kids books and celebrity autobiographies.”Smith statement Bloomsbury offered a brief “interim […]
Barnes & Noble's New Earnings Schedule Has Bookstore Comps Down 4.1 Percent
Barnes & Noble announced results for their new fiscal quarter, aligned to dovetail with the just-acquired BN College. Reporting sales for the past nine weeks of the new quarter, same-store sales at BN fell 4.1 percent at $665 million, while results at BN.com rose 8 percent to $91 million. The retailer said that for the full fiscal 2010 quarter, they expect that comp-store sales decline to range between 1 percent and 3 percent–meaning they see sales improving from here. Of course those forward-looking comparisons are set against a lower bar–October is when book sales started to plunge last year as […]
BN Completes BN College Acquisition
Barnes & Noble announced after the close of the market that they completed their acquisition of privately-held Barnes & Noble College Booksellers from Len Riggio. The purchase price was reduced from $596 million to $514 million, “reflect $82 million in cash bonuses paid by College to 192 members of its management team and employees” (not including Riggio.) The original purchase price acknowledged that BN College had about $136 million in cash on hand, making the effective price $460 million, which presumably has not changed materially. The company did say that the refinancing of their lightly-used $1 billion revolving credit facility […]
Trade and Education Sales Have Big Gains for Scholastic
Scholastic reported a 14 percent increase in sales from continuing operations for their fiscal first quarter, at $315.6 million, with an improved net loss of $23 million (compared to a loss of $49.1 million a year ago.) The company says revenues were boosted by “higher sales of educational technology to schools and of children’s books in retail channels during the quarter.” CEO Dick Robinson cites “the arrival of Federal stimulus funds in local districts” as one factor in boosting education sales. In their children’s book publishing and distribution division, sales rose almost $15 million, to $76.2 million, though they had […]
Trade Falls Further at Wiley, As "Stabilizing" Is Seen
Sales fell 10 percent in Wiley’s professional/trade segment in their fiscal first quarter, at $90 million (with a third of that decline due to currency exchange). But the company says “retail market conditions appear to be stabilizing, and major accounts are replenishing inventory. The second quarter began positively, as reflected in strong August sales.” Contribution to profit also declined 10 percent, at $16 million. Companywide, sales of $388 million were down three percent, while income before taxes of $37.1 million was up three percent. Higher education was the only segment with sales growth in the period, rising 12 percent to […]