Net revenue for San Francisco-based home products cataloger/retailer Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) increased 4.1%, to $859.4 million for the second quarter ended July 29. That figure is up from $825.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2006. Though net income for the quarter fell 27%, from $35.6 million last year to $26 million, the profit was higher than expected. The company’s titles include the Pottery Barn books and West Elm.
Second-quarter direct-to-customer (catalog/Internet) net sales increased 2.8%, to $372.4 million, up from $362.2 million. Internet sales were up 11.1%, to $237.4 million, up from $213.8 million in the second quarter last year. Retail revenue rose 5.1%, to $487.0 million, up from $463.4 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2006.
Chairman/CEO Howard Lester said in a release: “While the home furnishings macro-environment continued to be challenging in the second quarter, the strength of our brands and strong execution once again allowed us to deliver better than expected earnings. What was particularly encouraging about these results was the strong performance of our emerging brands and the improving trend we saw in Pottery Barn, which we believe was driven by early successes in the rollout of our Pottery Barn revitalization initiatives.”