Second-quarter sales for 1-800-Flowers.com increased 1.3%, to $334.2 million compared with $329.9 million for the same period last year. For the quarter ended Dec. 30, the company’s net income jumped nearly 14%, to $19.3 million compared with $16.9 million last year.
The Carle Place, NY-based company includes the HearthSong, Plow & Hearth, Popcorn Factory, Magic Cabin Dolls, and Cheryl & Co. catalogs. According to a release, 1-800-Flowers.com’s total revenue growth reflected the “challenging economic climate during the key year-end holiday period with the majority of growth achieved attributable to the company’s BloomNet Wire Service business, which grew 32.1% during the quarter.”
CEO Jim McCann said in the release: “Revenue growth for the quarter in part reflects our conscious decision not to chase top-line growth. Throughout the period, we were judicious in our promotional efforts, limiting the use of free shipping offers to higher margin items and larger order sizes and thereby minimizing the impact on gross profit margin. This strategy, combined with our enhanced operating expense leverage, enabled us to maintain strong contribution margins in our consumer floral and gourmet gifts categories as well as significantly improve the year-over-year bottom-line results in our home and children’s gifts category.”