1-800-Flowers gains on holiday sales
Christmas was the most wonderful time of the year for 1-800-Flowers.com (Nasdaq: FLWS). The Westbury, NY-based gifts marketer reported a 22% increase in sales for its fiscal second quarter, to a record $197.4 million for the three months ended Dec. 29.
Online revenue increased 25%, to $75.8 million from $60.5 million for the previous fiscal second quarter. Telephonic revenue increased 22%, to $114.0 million from $93.5 million. While the company does not break out catalog revenue, it did credit an expanded gift line from its catalogs for much of the increase. 1-800-Flowers’ titles include home products catalog Plow & Hearth, food gifts catalog The Popcorn Factory, and toys catalogs HearthSong and Magic Cabin Dolls.
As a result of the increased revenue and gross profit margin, EBITDA (earnings before income taxes, depreciation, and amortization) more than doubled, to $14.2 million from $5.2 million the previous year. Net income for the quarter soared to $10.1 million from $1.8 million.
Top-, bottom-line boosts for NBTY Nutritional supplements manufacturer/marketer NBTY reported a 12% increase in fiscal first-quarter net sales and a 49% increase in net income. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the Bohemia, NY-based parent company of retailer Vitamin World and direct marketer Puritan’s Pride posted net income of $16.6 million on sales of $241.4 million. For the comparable period of 2001, net income was $11.1 million on sales of $215.1 million. Sales from the Puritan’s Pride division rose 5%, to $34.0 million.