For the quarter ending June 27, Courier Corporation’s consolidated third-quarter revenues were $61.4 million, down from $73.4 million. Book publishing sales declined, but “less so than earlier in the year,” with an 8 percent drop at the Dover unit. “While Creative Homeowner sales were down 38%, most of that decline was the result of the winding-down of its book distribution services earlier in the year.” Total publishing sales of $11.3 million were down 15.7 percent from $13.4 million a year ago. Operating loss for the division improvted to $624,000, versus a loss of $2.5 million last year. Company CEO James […]
Earnings Reports
Waterstone's Makes Year's Drop in Sales and Profits Sound Strong
Waterstone’s parent has updated the sparse sales statistics provided in late April with their “preliminary results” for the fiscal year. The basic numbers are the same (comp sales still fell 3.8 percent), though they add actual sales for the year–548.3 million pounds–and profits, at 10 million pounds down 38.5 percent from the previous year. The decline in earnings is attributed to “the sales decline, a 10 basis points reduction in gross margin due to the higher mix of online sales, and £2.0m of book hub start-up costs, partially offset by cost control measures, including bonus savings.” They also too “exceptional […]
Economy and Currency Pull Down Wiley Results
Sales fell 6.7 percent at Wiley in their fourth quarter, at $403 million and earnings per share decline 14.3 percent, with “continued softness in professional/trade and a decline in higher education.” The company says results rose on a currency-neutral basis. For the coming year, the company says “we anticipate revenue growth on a currency neutral basis” but “top-line results will be highly dependent on economic conditions around the world.” For the full fiscal year, revenue fell 3.7 percent to $1.6 billion reflecting a $120 million negative effect from foreign exchange (principally the declining British pound), and earnings per share declined […]
Quercus Still Growing, without Profits
Sales at Quercus rose to 10.94 million pounds, up 27 percent, but the house reported a consolidated loss of 281,000 pounds for 2008. CEO Mark Smith writes, “the disruption in the UK marketplace contributed to a shortfall in our anticipated Trade revenues and, as a result, total revenue fell short of expectations.” He writes that the first five months of 2009 have been better, saying “we are confident of achieving better results in 2009, but remain watchful and prudent in the current climate.” (Quercus should start to receive royalties from the US edition of Stieg Larsson’s novel later this year.) […]
Retail News: Comps Fall at WH Smith; Borders UK Back on the Block?: and More
WH Smith issued a brief trading update covering the first 13 weeks of the second half of the financial year” (e.g. their third quarter). At their high street stores, same-store sales fell 5 percent, while comps fell 2 percent at their travel stores.Company site Also in the UK, Borders UK has hired Clearwater Corporate Finance as an adviser. A Borders spokesperson claims the goal is to “seek out funding opportunities”; the Independent says more bluntly their job is “to conduct a potential sale of the 51-store business…although a sales memorandum has not yet been sent out.” The newspaper reported recently […]
Sales Drop 12 Percent at Borders
First quarter sales at Borders fell 12.1 percent overall at $641.5 million, with same-store sales down 13.5 percent at the superstores and down 5.5 percent at Waldenbooks. Superstores and Borders.com comprised $536.7 million of sales, with just $76.9 million coming from the 376 Waldens open at the end of the quarter. International sales, primarily from Paperchase, fell 14.9 percent to $27.9 million, suffering from the fall in the pound. The company lost $15.9 million or 27 cents per share on an operating basis–better than last year’s loss, and better than the 50-cent loss analysts expected–but the total loss was $86 […]