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From Home Furnishing Business
Big Lots, Inc. Reports Q3 Results for Fiscal Year 2023
November 30,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) today reported net income of $4.7 million, or $0.16 per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 ended October 28, 2023. This result includes a net after-tax benefit of $132.7 million, or $4.53 per share, associated with the net impact of gains on the sale of real estate and related expenses, distribution center closure costs, impairment charges, and fees related to Project Springboard.
Excluding this benefit, the adjusted net loss in the third quarter of 2023 was $127.9 million, or $4.38 per share (see non-GAAP table included later in this release). The adjusted net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2022 was $86.7 million, or $2.99 per share.
Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 totaled $1.027 billion, a 14.7% decrease compared to $1.204 billion for the same period last year. The decline to last year was driven by a comparable sales decrease of 13.2%. A net decrease in store count contributed approximately 150 basis points of sales decline compared to the third quarter of 2022.
Commenting on today's results announcement, Bruce Thorn, President and CEO of Big Lots stated, "Although the environment remains challenging, we continued to make significant progress in turning around our business. Our key strategic actions are building momentum, and we continue to play offense with our efforts to deliver incredible bargains and communicate unmistakable value.
As a result, we are now on track to deliver an adjusted Q4 operating result ahead of last year, which would mark the first quarter of year-over-year improvement in nearly three years, and we expect quarterly year-over-year improvements to continue through 2024."
"As it relates to Q3 results, we were able to deliver on or exceed our beginning of quarter guidance on all key metrics. We posted a sequential improvement in comp sales, significant year over year improvement in gross margin rate, and adjusted SG&A well below last year despite absorbing additional expense related to the recent sale/leaseback of our California distribution center and 23 owned stores.”
“We believe the improvements in Q3 were driven by the five key actions that underlie our strategy, which are to own bargains, communicate unmistakable value, increase store relevance, win with omnichannel, and drive productivity.
"Additionally, we are on track to achieve over $100 million of SG&A cost savings, prior to Project Springboard benefits for the year. Project Springboard is off to a strong start and on track to deliver $200 million of bottom-line benefits, spanning gross margin and SG&A, of which we expect a high proportion to be realized on a run-rate basis by the end of 2024."
"To support our ongoing turnaround, our efforts to aggressively manage costs, inventory and capital expenditures, as well as monetize our assets with completion of a $306 million sale/leaseback in the quarter, have allowed us to significantly strengthen our balance sheet. Our ongoing efforts are providing us with ample liquidity to weather the macroeconomic challenges, even if they are prolonged. We expect to generate substantial free cash flow and significantly reduce outstanding debt in the fourth quarter."
"Overall, we are pleased with the progress we are seeing across our business and are increasingly confident that our five key actions will translate into continued improvement in financial performance in Q4 and into 2024."