Nebraska Book Company Posts Solid Gains
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 6/16/2003
Total revenue at Nebraska Book Company rose 9.3%, to $370.5 million, for the fiscal year ended March 31, and net income jumped 45.5%, to $23 million. Sales were up in all three of the company's operating divisions.
Sales in the textbook division, which is NBC's wholesale arm that handles the sale of used college textbooks, increased 8% in the year. NBA attributed the gain to price increases as well as to a small gain in unit sales. The 7.7% increase in sales in the company's bookstore division was led by a 4.9% gain in same-store sales combined with the acquisition of new stores. NBC operated 109 college stores at the end of the fiscal year, up from 102 a year earlier. Sales in the complementary services division rose 15.5%, due to growth in its distant education programs through which NBC supplies texts to students enrolled in distance education courses and other nontraditional higher education programs.
NBC's growth strategies for fiscal 2004 include expanding the number of college stores it operates and adding new specialty products and services at its existing stores. In addition, NBC plans to strengthen its marketing campaign "to increase student awareness of the benefits of buying and selling used textbooks."
