Profitsfall at Brookstone

Gifts and gadgets cataloger/retailer Brookstone (Nasdaq: BKST), which mails the Hard-to-Find Tools and Gardeners Eden catalogs, reported that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 2 dropped 12%, to $22.3 million. Last year, Brookstone posted net income of $25.2 million. Net sales decreased 6%, to $169.8 million, compared with $180.9 million last year. What’s more, comparable store sales decreased 11% from last year.

For the year ended Feb. 2, Brookstone posted a 64% drop in net income to $5.3 million, compared to net income of $14.9 million last year. Total company sales decreased 3%, to $352.9 million compared to $364.5 million last year. Same store sales for the comparable 52-week period decreased 9%.

During the quarter, Brookstone subsidiary Gardeners Eden opened its first two stores, which the company says met internal sales projections in the fourth quarter.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2002, Brookstone anticipates a loss of $0.80-$0.85 per share based on a low single-digit same-store sales decrease and the effect of opening 27 new stores last year. For the year, Brookstone expects same store sales to increase in the mid-single digit range. The company, which plans to open 15 new stores this year, anticipates full-year diluted earnings per share of $1.20-$1.25.