Cost Plus 4th Quarter Sales Jump

February 7, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on February 2007 Cost Plus Inc., owner of World Market, announced total revenue for the 14-week fourth quarter ended Feb. 3 of $396.7 million, an 8.1 percent increase from $367 million during the prior, 13-week fourth quarter ended Jan. 28, 2006.

Same store sales for the fourth quarter decreased 3.9 percent, compared to a 2.1 percent decrease for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005. Total revenue for the 53-week fiscal year 2006 was $1.04 billion, a 7.2 percent increase from $970.4 million for the 52-week fiscal year 2005. For the year, same store sales decreased 3.3 percent compared to a 2.6 percent decrease in fiscal 2005.

“Despite a challenging quarter for many companies in the home furnishings sector, we achieved an 8.1 percent increase in total revenue and were within our sales guidance range,” said Barry Feld, president and CEO. “In January, the company celebrated an important milestone of achieving the billion dollar revenue mark. We were pleased with the improved sell-through rate of our holiday merchandise by Dec. 25 compared to last year. As a result, our semi-annual clearance event in January included less holiday merchandise than last year. Sales of certain home decor merchandise categories were below plan for the quarter, and we took the necessary markdowns in January to clear the product. As I have said in previous conference calls, our customers expect an ever-changing selection of unique and authentic products from around the world and we will take timely markdowns to clear slow moving merchandise in order to make room for new arrivals.”

The company will release its fourth quarter results after market close March 22.