Santa brought an early Christmas present to women’s apparel cataloger/retailer Coldwater Creek (Nasdaq:CWTR): a 263% surge in third-quarter net income. For the three months ended Nov. 30, Coldwater netted $5.7 million, compared with income of $1.6 million for the third quarter of last year.
Sales for the quarter rose nearly 9%, to $153.8 million from $141.7 million last year. Net sales within the direct segment–which includes the catalog and Internet as well as outlet stores–fell 2%, to $120.6 million from $123.4 million a year earlier. Retail sales rose 81%, to $33.2 million. For the third quarter of 2002, Coldwater had 37 full-line stores open the entire three months, compared with just 14 for the third quarter of 2001.