Financial reports: Federated, RedEnvelope

With Fingerhut discontinued, Federated figures look fine

In its first-quarter financial report, Federated Department Stores (NYSE: FD) refers to its Fingerhut Cos. subsidiary as “discontinued operations.” This makes the retailer’s balance sheet appear clean at first glance. But if you look deeper, you see that the assets of Fingerhut fell 69%, to $495 million for the three months ended May 4. For the comparable quarter of last year, the multititle mailer had $1.6 billion in assets. Fingerhut’s deteriorating value is one of the many reasons Wayzata, MN-based Business Development Group Acquisitions attempt to buy the cataloger fell through earlier this month.

Discounting Fingerhut, Federated’s first-quarter net sales fell 3%, to $3.5 billion. But net income shot up 51%, to $89 million. In addition to its department store chains, Federated includes the Bloomingdale’s by Mail catalog and the Macys.com Website.

RedEnvelope cashes in on Mom Gifts cataloger RedEnvelope says it enjoyed a 35% sales increase in Mother’s Day sales this year over Mother’s Day 2001. Catalog sales were up 40% over the previous Mother’s Day. The San Francisco-based company’s house file has reached 925,000.

Best-selling products included a new plants and flowers gift-of-the-month program, a Pearls for Mom bracelet, a Motherhood Necklace, and a Lucky Bamboo. RedEnvelope plans to launch a Father’s Day collection for its catalog that will mail on May 28, as well as its Website. Among the offerings includes a Cigar of the Month program.