Financial Reports: Gander Mountain, J.C. Penney

Sales Up At Gander Mountain
Third-quarter sales for outdoors merchant Gander Mountain rose 4%, to $270 million. For the period ended Nov. 1, direct sales were $14.4 million. The company didn’t have any direct sales in the third quarter of 2007, since the acquisition of Overton’s direct marketing operations didn’t occur until December 2007.

Gander Mountain posted retail segment net income of $3.6 million, compared to a net loss of $5.1 million in the third quarter of 2007. Same-store sales fell 6.5%. “We are pleased with the operational progress visible in these results at Gander Mountain,” chairman/CEO David C. Pratt said in a statement.

J.C. Penney’s Third Quarter Sales, Net Income Fall
J.C. Penney Co. saw total third-quarter sales slip 8.7%, to $4.31 billion, compared to $4.73 billion for the same period in 2007. Net income sank 52%, to $124 million from $261 million for the third quarter last year. For the three months ended Nov. 1, the general merchant’s same-store sales decreased 10.1%; Internet sales decreased 0.3%.

Chairman/CEO Myron E. Ullman III said in a release: “We believe that J.C. Penney continues to be well positioned in a very challenging retail environment. As sales have been impacted by lower consumer spending and declining mall traffic, we have been effective in reducing SG&A expenses without compromising our customer experience and in managing our inventories to appropriate levels. Over the course of the third quarter, we have also executed initiatives that bring newness, excitement and convenience for customers into our stores, catalogs and jcp.com.”