Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Big Lots, Inc. Releases First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Results
May 30,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
Big Lots, Inc. reported a net loss of $206.1 million, or $7.10 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 ended April 29, 2023. This result includes a net after-tax charge of $107.4 million, or $3.70 per share, associated with the net impact of synthetic lease exit costs, forward distribution center closure costs, store asset impairment charges, and a gain on the sale of real estate and related expenses.
Excluding this charge, the adjusted net loss in the first quarter of 2023 was $98.7 million, or $3.40 per share (see non-GAAP table included later in this release). The net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 was $11.1 million, or $0.39 per share.
Net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 totaled $1.124 billion, an 18.3% decrease compared to $1.375 billion for the same period last year. The decline to last year was driven by a comparable sales decrease of 18.2%.
We estimate comparable sales were adversely impacted by approximately 300 basis points due to product shortages in furniture, resulting from the unexpected closure of our largest vendor in November 2022.
This impact excludes the attachment impact on adjacent categories, such as soft home. A net decrease in store count, partially offset by new stores and relocations, contributed approximately 10 basis points of sales decline compared to the first quarter of 2022.
Commenting on today's results announcement, Bruce Thorn, president and CEO of Big Lots stated, "Macro-economic headwinds have created significant challenges for us, which are reflected in our results and outlook. But we are confident that these headwinds will abate, and that when they do, we will see a major boost to our business. “
“In particular, we expect furniture and seasonal to return to being the strong growth drivers for our business they have been in the past, as consumer confidence improves and as we continue to bring newness and incredible value to our assortment."
“While we navigate through this difficult environment, we are being very aggressive in how we are managing our business. We are significantly raising our SG&A savings target to over $100 million in 2023 and have identified over $200 million of bottom-line opportunities across gross margin and SG&A we will be pursuing over the next 18 months.”
“Further, we are highly encouraged by the green shoots we are seeing as we work to turn the business. Notably, as a result of our efforts to introduce more bargains and treasures, marketing them better, and serving our customers well, the reactivation of lapsed customers was strong in Q1, up 9%.”
“We are also highly focused on ensuring we have plenty of liquidity to get through this period of macroeconomic challenges. In addition to cost and inventory reduction efforts, these actions include expected further asset monetization of approximately $340 million, and the decision made by our Board of Directors this week to suspend our dividend."