Hot Quarter for Coldwater

Women’s apparel cataloger/retailer Coldwater Creek (Nasdaq: CWDR) registered some impressive numbers in the first quarter ended April 29. The Sandpoint, ID-based merchant posted a 36% increase in net income, to $11.6 million, up from $8.5 million after the first quarter of 2005. Net sales for the first quarter soared 38%, to $215.3 million, compared to $155.6 million last year.

Net sales from the retail segment increased 53.5%, to $128.6 million, compared to $83.8 million last year. Catalog/Internet net sales rose nearly 21%, to $86.7 million, up from $71.9 million last year. Specifically, Internet sales increased 35%, to $55.5 million, while catalog sales inched up 1%, to $31.1 million.

“The solid first-quarter performance was due to positive customer response to full-price merchandise in all selling channels, supported by the ongoing success of our brand-building campaigns,” CEO Dennis Pence said in a statement. “We are pleased to report that our growing retail store base, coupled with the previously announced decision to increase average premium store square footage on a per-store basis, resulted in a retail net sales increase of 54% and higher sales-per-square-foot, compared with the prior year period, and contributed to the most profitable first quarter in the company’s history.”

Coldwater Creek also announced that it would restate its fiscal 2005 financial statements to fix the way it accounts for non-efundable marketing fees received from its credit-card issuer in conjunction with its cobranded credit card program. The fees were recognized as revenue during the period in which a customer’s cobranded credit card was issued and activated; going forward, revenue from the marketing fees will be deferred and recognized over future reporting periods. As a result of the restatement, net sales for fiscal 2005 will decrease by approximately $8.5 million. Net sales for the second, third, and fourth quarters of fiscal 2005 will decrease by about $1.3 million, $3.3 million and $3.9 million, respectively.